Astpai are heading off on tour and have posted up a really important status updated. They will be forming a London base to collect item donations to drop off at Calias for refugees. You can get more details on the cause below:
hello folks,
my band ASTPAI’s upcoming tour in september will mark the eighth year of us traveling across central and western mainland europe, crossing the english channel and playing the UK.
the four of us and all other friends involved have been incredibly lucky to be playing this whole band-touring-game for such a long time now.
needless to say, we still appreciate every single moment of it.
as amazing at it feels being able to live our dreams and follow our hearts, while consistently being supported by so many people along the way, one can’t help to realize how all of this is not just a mixture of luck and hard work, but mainly a big fucking privilege.
in those eight years of coming to the UK, we pretty much drove right past what media, politicians and the general public refer to as “The (Calais) Jungle” – a series of camps in the vicinity of Calais, France, where refugees are forced to stop and pause their quest for a better life without war or persecution of many kinds.
as new-ish as the entire topic of refugees in europe seems to appear to a wider majority of the european citizens, The Jungle has pretty much existed since the early 2000s in different shapes and settlements, however by 2015, the numbers of people living in the area have gone up to over 4000 people.
while most governments all across Europe fail to provide acceptable-, or in a lot of cases ANY kind of living situations for the majority of refugees and asylum seekers, there’s been great help provided by small communities around the UK, France and other parts of Europe in order to make peoples lives at The Jungle a little more bearable.
ASTPAI will set up a london homebase to gather donations such as
– tents, tarps and sleeping bags – all complete please!
– blankets, (warm) clothes – all clean please!
– books, dictionaries, etc.
– sanitary items (shower gels, soap, diapers)
– first aid supplies
of which we will drop off as many as possible at the various collectors points in and around calais on our way out of the UK.
(due to a lack of van space on the way to the UK, we’ll only be able to take a limited amount of goods at the first couple of shows.)
PLEASE GET IN TOUCH via message on here or send an email to zockastpai@gmail.com if you live anywhere near the places we’ll hit up on this trip and have any of the items listed above to give away. we’ll let you know how much more we can fit along the way:
Wed, Sep 09 – DE – Regensburg @ Alte Mälzerei
Thu, Sep 10 – DE – Wermelskirchen @ AJZ
Fri, Sep 11 – BE – Zoersel @ JH JoeNiz
Sat, Sep 12 – UK – London @ Macbeth
Sun, Sep 13 – UK – Brighton @ Green Door Store, Unfun Fest
Mon, Sep 14 – UK – Leeds @ Santiagos
Tue, Sep 15 – UK – Newcastle @ Trillians
Wed, Sep 16 – UK – Glasgow @ Nice And Sleazy
Thu, Sep 17 – UK – Aberdeen @ Downstairs
Fri, Sep 18 – UK – Huddersfield @ The Parish
Sat, Sep 19 – UK – Bristol @ Roll For The Soul
Sun, Sep 20 – UK – Birmingham @ Scruffy Murphys
Mon, Sep 21 – UK – Canterbury @ Lady Luck Bar
Tue, Sep 22 – UK – Norwich @ The Owl Sanctuary
to also encourage monetary donations, we will be turning a fair share of our merch sales into water, food, sanitary products and other valuable donations and we’ll drop it off right at the collectors points in and around calais when entering and leaving the UK.
get involved! get in touch!
it’s very simple.
Zock
ps: FUCK THE BORDER!