Canadian rapper and singer Drake is bringing an abandoned fantasy amusement park and giving it a new life in Los Angeles, California. Luna Luna was first created by the artist André Heller in the late 1980s after he commissioned works by artists Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and more. At the time it was dubbed a “fairground of sensations” and “the museum of the future.” However, the amusement park was decommissioned and moved to a storage facility in Texas for more than 30 years.

About Luna Luna – the fantasy amusement park

According to the Los Angeles Times, 30 years after the park rides were decommissioned and moved to Texas, Drake and his entertainment firm, DreamCrew, are bringing Luna Luna back to life. They purchased the rides and invested in creating a park environment in LA, paying some $100 million in total for the project.

Meanwhile, the reimagined amusement park has been dubbed “Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy”. It is set to open to the public this month and will run through the spring of 2024 in a huge complex. The only drawback is that while all the weird and wonderful rides will be there, guests won’t be able to hop on for a ride.

This includes the Ferris wheel created by Basquait or the quaint carousel by Haring. However, people will be able to get close to these rare pieces of art, which is what it is all about.

Art to feel like a carnival

While no one can hop on the rides, it was reported that Drake’s company does aim to make this unique art exhibit feel like a true carnival. To do so, various performers will wander around the warehouse space among the pieces. Meanwhile, visitors can walk through fantastic art pieces, including Salvador Dalí’s “Dalídom.” Moreover, the geodesic dome is likely one of the best funhouses anyone could ever enter.

Speaking to the LA Times, Helen Molesworth, curatorial adviser for the park, said, “The luna park is always a dream space,” adding:

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.

When can you visit Luna Luna?

Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy opened on December 15 and tickets can be purchased on the amusement park’s website here. Meanwhile, if you can’t get to LA in person in time to see the art pieces, DreamCrew did state:

Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy is the first installment 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.

We all need a little fantasy in our lives and it seems there will be plenty to look forward to in the future. In the meantime, readers can browse images of Luna Luna on its Instagram page.