Kevin Feldman, an ardent Burning Man supporter, plans to bring an art car made from a Boeing 747 to this year's festival. He claims that it will be one of the most inspiring and largest art car installations that the Burning Man Festival community has ever seen, calling it his "Everest."
Burning Man is a large-scale music, art and performance festival that takes place annually in the Mojave desert. In more recent years, the organization has also created international spin-off Festivals such as AfrikaBurn .
For the annual festival, a temporary city is built. Large art cars are utilized as public transportation from the village to various points of the festival. Feldman's unusual vehicle would hold approximately 300 people on its dance floor.
Feldman and his supporters are planning to source the necessary capital through crowdfunding. They would like to raise an amount in the low hundreds of thousands. We're not sure if we would feel any great urge to invest but with an average of 70,000 people coming to live temporarily at the massive festival, Feldman may just find the support he needs from other die-hard burners.
Feldman is no newbie to art car creation. He received some notoriety for his unique " Charlie the Unicorn " vehicle a few years ago. The car was designed to resemble a viral unicorn character on YouTube named Charlie who gets tricked by his friends into venturing to Candy Mountain, only to get his kidney stolen.
Um, ok.
The festival, which is about a counterculture experience, has received criticism in recent years, as some claim that the event is catering more to the rich than the average attendees. Even Feldman pointed this out in his interview with TechCrunch saying, “There’s this creeping sense of exclusivity at Burning Man. People are doing things like giving out wristbands. I understand why they do it. It’s really expensive to operate these systems, but that’s a slippery slope.”
However, even though his project will likely cost well over $100,000, Feldman explains that part of the "goal and mission is to fully embrace the 10 principles of Burning Man. Radical inclusion is very important to us and we’re doing something that people hopefully feel is fun and magnificent.”
Regardless of our skepticism or the potential critiques of others, Feldman is excited about his new undertaking, although he insists this will be his final art car. He also said this after his Charlie the Unicorn float. This time, though, he believes the 747 will be something so original and incredible he will be defined by it.
Emphasizing the apparently overwhelming sense of achievement he will feel if he manages to get the project off the ground Feldman said, "I will never ever work on another art car again, except for this project. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I will never do something like this again.” He added, “This is my Everest.”
Everest. Really?