If anyone knows how to have a good time, it’s Drake and the actor-slash-rapper — he’ll always be a Degrassi kid to us first — is proving his fun and artistic prowess all in one go with his investment and revival of a long-forgotten amusement park.
The abandoned park debuted in Hamburg, Germany, in 1987. It was created by André Heller, who had commissioned works by the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and more. At the time it was called “fairground of sensations” and “the museum of the future.”
All you need to know about the amusement park that Drake is reviving
According to the Los Angeles Times, Luna Luna’s perfectly preserved amusement park rides had been decommissioned from their original home and stored in a facility in Texas for more than 30 years. Drake and his entertainment firm, DreamCrew, purchased the rides and invested in recreating a park-like environment in Los Angeles, shelling out somewhere north of USD 100 million (over HKD 784 million) in total for the project, according to Hyperallergic.
View this post on Instagram
The reimagined park is called “Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy,” and is set to open to the public this month and run through the spring of 2024 in a massive, 60,000-square-foot complex.
Related Stories
However, there is an important asterisk in all of this. Guests won’t actually be able to hop aboard the Ferris wheel created by Basquiat or the carousel by Haring. Yes, they’ll be able to get close to these pieces, but these are remarkably pricey and extraordinarily rare pieces of art, after all.
Still, the LA Times reported that Drake’s company aims to make the glorified art exhibit feel like a real carnival, with performers wandering the warehouse space. Guests can walk through pieces like Salvador Dalí’s “Dalídom,” a geodesic dome that is perhaps the coolest fun house you’ll likely ever get to go into.
“The luna park is always a dream space,” Helen Molesworth, the park’s curatorial adviser, told the LA Times. “It’s like someone goes around and untightens the screws of your need to behave, your need to be good, your need to be smart, your need to be proper. Someone just untightens those four screws, and you can think different things and feel different things. You can tap into whatever it is in you that you locked up, whether it’s your childhood or sense of adventure or desire to be scared or desire to be bamboozled.”
Ticket prices are not yet available on the attraction’s website. However, you can sign up with your email to be alerted when ticket sales do open to the public.
And don’t fret if you can’t make it to Los Angeles over the next few months to see the pieces in person. DreamCrew shared in a statement with the LA Times, “Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy is the first instalment of what will be a long-term project with a multi-faceted approach exploring the world of art and its intersection with today’s modern world.” So expect plenty more fantastical parks to come.
Shop the best travel experiences here
This story first appeared on www.travelandleisure.com
All currency conversions were done at the time of writing
(Hero and Feature Image Credit: Cole Burston/Getty Images)
Related: Discover the Best of Singapore’s Theme Parks with This Ultimate Visitor’s Guide.
Written By
