About this project

The video is of the Gaiteros de La Habana practicing on the rooftop of the Asturian Center in Old Havana, Cuba. Flavio Benito, gaitero of Asturias, leads the pipe band in practice. The view overlooks the tree-lined Prado walkway.

So what are bagpipes, perhaps the last instrument you would expect to find, doing in Cuba? Like the US, Cuba is a melting pot of cultures and therefore of musics. For example, the African influence on Cuban jazz was presented through the Buena Vista Social Club documentary. What is not well-known, or documented, is the Celtic connection to Cuba.

60 percent of the people of Cuba are descended from immigrants from Spain. Many of those immigrants were from the two Celtic Spanish lands, Galicia and Asturia. And thirty percent of the Cuban people are descended from Europeans, many of those Irish. Like those from Africa, these roots too have influenced the music of Cuba.

Havana has two Bagpipe bands and a vibrant Celtic music scene centered around the university in Havana. In April, they will be running the first CeltFest Cuba. I am incredibly lucky to be hosted by the Canadian-Cuban Celtic Society to go down to participate. The CCCS was founded by musicians from Eastern Canada as an "artist-driven initiative to celebrate the traditional music that has migrated to the western hemisphere from the various Celtic nations of Europe." One of their main objectives is to help Havana establish their own Celtic festival, CeltFest Cuba, which will be loosely based around Cape Breton's Celtic Colours Festival, a hugely successful international festival nestled in the tiny communities of Cape Breton Island.

As the owner of a still fledgling small business, it will be all I can do to just to get myself from New York City to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada where we fly out. I would very much like to document this trip through photography and video, but all I have is my circa 2001 digital camera, which is currently being held together with rubber bands.

I know it's a lot to ask for, and not much time to ask for it in, but I would love to be able to purchase a Panasonic Gh1 camera. It's price is $1200. This is an average price for a decent digital SLR, but this camera also takes amazing HD video. And it is notoriously easy to get stunning pictures and video from. $1200 is the bare minimum I need to make this happen. If, somehow, many wonderful people pledge enough to get me to $1200 before my 30 days are up, I would be so so happy to raise more than $1200. I would then be able to purchase some additional things like: some memory cards (i.e. "film"), an external hard drive to dump each days footage onto, another lens, a quality microphone, video editing software, or a spare battery or two. This festival is going to be an incredible cross-cultural exchange, and I want to share my trip, and the Celtic culture of Cuba, with as many people as I can.

Additionally, the pipers of Havana are trying to learn to make bagpipes on their own. I've volunteered to try to help them. That in particular would be wonderful to document. Obviously I won't be able to make a "Buena Vista Social Club" by myself. But with the GH1 I can come as close as one man possibly can. Please help.

Some of you may be thinking, "what, we buy him a really cool camera for one trip?" In fact, this camera is going to get a real workout. As part of my bagpipe-making business, I attend, at minimum, five major (well, major for us) folk music events, and more than a handful of little ones, each year. All of them are small and virtually undocumented up to now. I've just started documenting, through my website and blog, concerts, festivals, parties, and tons of underground bagpipe and fiddle events (not to mention the work I'm trying to do documenting pre-1850's bagpipes). Take a look, I think you'll begin to see how many great pictures and video I'll be able to take. With your help, I hope to be able to show more people how the Celtic musical tradition has impacted cultures worldwide.