Burners, get ready. Ken Feldman's dream of bringing a gutted 747 airplane to Burning Man is finally happening.
Big Imagination Foundation, the Los Angeles-based arts nonprofit Feldman co-founded with business partner Jon Teo, has assured Burners that a 75-foot long portion of the plane will be towed 450 miles from its holding spot in the Mojave Desert to the Black Rock Desert in Northern Nevada for Burning Man.
The plane will arrive in Nevada just as 70,000 people get to Burning Man. Feldman planned on brining the airplane in 2015, but the idea will fly (or, rather, be towed) this year. He said the journey to getting the plane to Burning Man hasn't been easy.
“If I had any idea that it would take this long, I wouldn’t do it. I feel like I’m climbing Mt. Everest,” Feldman said. “The community it’s built up around us, though, it’s incredible."
Feldman said despite the difficulty they've had getting the plane to the festival, they have no plans of giving up.
"The whole point of the foundation is to do insane projects. We could do anything. We could go to the moon. If we quit, we sort of defeat the purpose," Feldman said. "If we have to drag it across the desert with our teeth, we will.”
The group currently plans on bringing the front-top section of the plane, and hope to raise another $50,000 to bring the back half.
“The goal is to create an experience for people that is transformative. It’s not just a big party,” Feldman said.
Last year, without a plane, the foundation created a Burning Man camp where volunteers simulated the process of boarding a plane.
Campers dressed as flight attendants prompted passersby to go through an "insecurity" checkpoint, where they received a hug and were asked to drop off emotional baggage.
"We would lose (emotional baggage) for them – typical of an airline," said Toni Alejandria, who joined the project last year to direct the fundraising campaign.
Then they'd write a desired destination on a boarding pass; sometimes the destination was Disneyland, other times a loving relationship or just making it to the end of the week.
"To be a part of something like this, it’s tremendous. We saw people crying, coming to terms with things and falling in love," Alejandria said.
The camp will bring back the same experience for Burners this year, but inside the plane will be an entirely different experience, one that the foundation will reveal at the event.
If the Big Imagination Foundation can raise another $140,000 before Burning Man 2017, the camp wants to also bring the bottom half of the plane, making it a half-football-field-long section of the plane, including the belly, wheels and parts of the wings.
While many Burners have questioned whether a plane could be pulled across the playa without sinking into the dust, Feldman said its current location, the Mojave Desert, has similar ground.
“We have already have towed this thing around in the dirt. You can barely tell it’s been there because the tires are really big and really soft,” he said.
Feldman said he's just the same as any artist on the playa, wanting to create a piece that inspires others to enact positive change in their lives.
"These experiences are part of the joy of living," Feldman said.
For more information about the Big Imagination Foundation or the 747 project, visit Bigimagination.org.
