To engender compassion and empathy by engaging in musics that are unknown, unexpected, or "weird" compared to what most people expect out of their performance experience and the traditional venues that they’re found in.
For the audience, it's a casual and inexpensive setting to engage with art shed the typical barriers (academic, economic, exclusive "high culture," inaccessible settings) that keep them from engaging with new and exciting work.
For the artist, its a chance to connect directly to an eager audience that is present and empty of expectations- open to challenging and daring work.