If anyone knows how to have a good time, it’s Drake. The actor-slash-rapper – he’ll always be a Degrassi kid to us first – is proving his fun and artistic prowess in one fell swoop by investing in and reviving a long-forgotten amusement park.
The abandoned park first opened in 1987 in Hamburg, Germany. It was created by André Heller, who had commissioned works from the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and others. At the time, it was dubbed the ‘Fairground of Sensations’ and the ‘Museum of the Future’.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Luna Luna’s perfectly preserved amusement park rides had been removed from their original home and stored in a Texas facility for more than 30 years. Drake and his entertainment company DreamCrew bought the rides and invested in recreating a park-like environment in Los Angeles, spending upwards of $100 million on the project, according to Hyperallergic.
The reimagined park is called ‘Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy’ and is set to open to the public this month and run until the spring of 2024 in a massive 60,000 square metre complex.
There is, however, an important asterisk. Visitors won’t actually be able to hop on Basquiat’s Ferris wheel or Haring’s carousel. Yes, they’ll be able to get up close and personal, but these are remarkably expensive and extremely rare pieces of art.
Nevertheless, the LA Times reports that Drake’s company aims to make the glorified art exhibition feel like a real carnival, with performers roaming the warehouse space. Guests will be able to walk through pieces such as Salvador Dalí’s ‘Dalídom’, a geodesic dome that’s probably the coolest fun house you’ll ever get to go inside.
“Luna Park is always a dream space,” Helen Molesworth, the park’s curatorial advisor, told the LA Times. “It’s like someone goes around and loosens the screws of your need to behave, your need to be good, your need to be smart, your need to be proper. Somebody just loosens those four screws and you can think different things and feel different things. You can tap into whatever it is inside you that you’ve locked up, whether it’s your childhood or your sense of adventure or your desire to be scared or your desire to be fooled.
Ticket prices are not yet available on the attraction’s website. However, you can sign up with your email to be notified when ticket sales open to the public.
And don’t worry if you can’t make it to Los Angeles in the next few months to see the pieces in person. In a statement to the LA Times, DreamCrew said: “Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy is the first part of a long-term project that will take a multi-faceted approach to exploring the world of art and its intersection with today’s modern world. So expect many more fantastic parks to come.