Burning Man’s airport is the second largest in Nevada, while Black Rock City is operating. Their organizers, the Black Rock Travel Agency, oversee more than 1000 runway operations per year, from hundreds of planes. Now they need our help with their IndieGogo campaign, which ends today. They’re only up to 42% of their $30,000 goal…

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“Starport is a new state of the art, beautiful, functional, and efficient pavilion space to host thousands of visitors at the Black Rock City Municipal Airport”

 

Burners, virgins, air-born and land-born: Welcome to Black Rock City Municipal Airport. You already know about Burning Man, but you may not know that the City boasts an active airport for it’s 70,000 residents and is the second busiest airport in the state of Nevada during the festival. First opened in 1999 and designated by the FAA as 88NV, it is inside the Reno MOA on aeronautical charts.

Assisting 88NV since its inception has been The Black Rock Travel Agency (BRTA), the airport theme camp of record–BRTA has been the fixed base operation (FBO) of choice for the BRC Municipal Airport since the beginning. We are passionate about large art in public spaces, and assisting our world-class airport in any way we can.

When you think airport, you probably envision a terminal of some sort to host pilots, passengers and airport staff – at the very least, a structure as a gathering area for the operation.

Over the years, these airport structures were utilitarian, functional, and whimsical, but then the bar was raised. In 2006 one of our pilots, Twilight + crew, created what was to become the central focus of the airport. The “Terminal” as it was known, was bigger and bluer than anything we had seen. It was also heavy and difficult to assemble and store–its life eventually gave out and the materials were re-purposed after three great years.

After the 2008 event it was clear we would need a bigger space that was easier to construct.  It was then that Michael Twing, Steve Ramseur and others created an efficient, resourceful, economic and larger structure that would get us through the next four years. Ultimately, this structure carried us through to 2013 when we launched a design competition for the next incarnation of airport space.

The design of Starport…

 

Designed by architect Ross Smith, Starport won the worldwide design competition initiated by Luke Lukoskie (more on the competition here) for our new pavilion last year. Starport will be in a new class of architecture, one that is consistent with Burning Man being one of the largest outdoor art festivals in the world.

Starport is not your typical airport pavilion. It is a place where large-scale visual art is performed, community flourishes, and the desert pulses beneath an iconic structure with soaring shade wings and trusses.

A key feature of Starport is the Observation Deck, which will offer panoramic views of the city and runway.

Starport is designed around a simple truss pyramid, which is economical, sturdy, easy to assemble, disassemble and store, and will last many years.

Think of Starport as consisting of two main structural elements: one is the central truss (described above) and the other is a set of cables that tie the trusses to the ground and offer attachment points for the large shade sails.

Starport is perfectly suited for Burning Man. It is easy to store, durable, functional, and fun. Most importantly, it will be an event space for all that Burning Man has to offer. Please join us in this endeavor and make Starportyour next destination. 

Your donation will directly contribute to creating Starport: fully functional, long-lasting, elegant, and gorgeous. It is a timeless structure in the middle of nowhere, telling our artistic community at Burning Man, “You Are Home”.

We have received incredible support from our extended airport community over the years but it’s time to take things to the next level…

To realize Starport’s future, will require a total of $40,000 in our fundraising push: $10,000 has been slated from a variety of sources, so now we turn to Indiegogo for the remaining $30,000. 

 

To really kick things off we now turn to you, our loyal airport community, to keep the momentum flowing.

Here’s a closer look at how the money raised from this Indiegogo campaign will be spent.

 

In return for your individual donation, a bounty of acknowledgements and decorations will be yours, in addition to the ongoing rewarding benefits of being a member of the Burning Man BRC Municipal Airport Community.

Just as we did with the terminal in 2009, the many BRTA volunteers who are dedicated to the Black Rock City Municipal Airport’s success will constructStarport.

We are committed to being transparent and thorough in reporting our expenses during this process.

Black Rock Travel Agency is excited to contribute an art installation, breaking new ground for large public structures at Burning Man.

Starport will host a variety of events that will be sure to attract interest from the community and create a new and a significant destination and meeting place for all.

If you didn’t catch it earlier, we’d like to offer you a perk for your contribution. Check them out on the upper right of this page.  Any amount you can donate is appreciated!