Our Mission

It’s a Party, It’s a Movement, It’s a Community

Founded by Alexander Arbess-Joy in 2015, Rainforest Pavilion is a community of artists, scientists, and environmental activists who are passionate about understanding and preserving rainforests. We bring people together through excellently curated events in rainforest-themed immersive environments, where we dance, celebrate, and unify.

Rainforests are the most complex and diverse terrestrial ecosystems, yet they remain sparsely understood. We believe that a deeper understanding of these ecosystems will lead to the development of technologies and medicines that can help us solve 21st-century problems.

The mission starts with conservation and is furthered by research. The funding for our work comes from events and music sales.

In the first phase, we generated funding, which we donated to conservation NGOs such as Rainforest Trust, Vivid Kalimantan, and Cuipo. The total amount donated exceeded $10,000 USD. We achieved this through a series of events across Southeast Asia and North America (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Canada). We also ran an independent stage at the Wonderfruit festival for four years and collaborated with organizations like IUCN, Vivid Kalimantan, Rainforest Trust, Greenpeace, ÆRTH, and Club Conscious, alongside countless DJs and artists.

Making money in the music industry is not straightforward, but music is at our core. Doing this through the arts feels more authentic to our mission than attaching ourselves to other commercial enterprises, though we are not entirely opposed to pursuing additional sources of income.

Due to the opacity of the NGOs we’ve donated to and our direct connection to rainforest areas, our next phase will be more direct. We plan to secure a hectare of prime, accessible rainforest land in Sumatra for approximately $23,000 USD. Once the land is secured, we will install camera traps with a live feed to our website (www.rainforestpavilion.com). This live feed could also be displayed at events and installations we host. The area is home to a diverse range of wildlife, including gibbons, orangutans, and tigers, and the camera sightings will be exciting and shareable.

In addition, we will engage in a serious mycological study of the area, ideally in collaboration with Paul Stamets (link) and his associates. This research will almost certainly discover new species previously unknown to science, with potential technological or medical applications. We will use these findings to generate further publicity and interest in the project, with the ultimate goal of purchasing many more hectares of land.