The partner proposal
Make a new festival landmark possible.
A grounded airship. A shared panoramic journey. Here is how we test the experience, what it costs to build, and how we shape the partnership toward a festival pilot.
The vision, on one page
Step into the sky.
An Airship Simulator landmark. A shared panoramic experience. A place for a founding partner to help bring the first one to life.
Concept visualizations. Feasibility and engineering come next. Independent concept with no festival affiliation.
Flight 001 / Partner proposal
Start small.
Make it real.
8–12
Guests in the first screen-room study.
Recorded imagery first. Test the feeling of flight before committing to a full-scale pavilion.
01
Feel it.
An 8–12 guest screen-room study. Test shared flight, comfort, and access using approved recorded imagery.
02
Cost it.
A production partner prices the structure, show, crew, and site. Live aerial capture has its own feasibility and approvals.
03
Host it.
One agreed festival pilot. Measure completed journeys, interruptions, guest response, and the actual cost.
Explore the full-scale capacity model
These are planning scenarios, separate from the guest study. Occupancy and uptime are applied independently. A boarding is not necessarily a unique visitor; allowable capacity needs engineering and venue approval.
| Scenario | Guests / cycle | Cycle | Occupancy | Uptime | Boardings / hour | 3-day total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 150 | 12 min | 80% | 70% | 420 | 15,120 |
| Planning case | 175 | 10 min | 85% | 70% | 625 | 22,491 |
| Upper scenario | 200 | 8 min | 90% | 70% | 945 | 34,020 |
Boardings = guests per cycle × (60 ÷ cycle minutes) × occupancy × uptime × operating hours. Planning case: 175 × 6 × 0.85 × 0.70 × 12 × 3 = 22,491 boardings. The cycle includes boarding, show, exit, and reset.
A host. A production lead.
A first conversation.
Start with a 20-minute fit review. Agree the study scope, spending ceiling, and evidence that earns the next phase.
Create the first flightCurrent evidence: concept artwork, an interactive browser demo, and a planning model. The browser festival is simulated. Physical construction, demand, economics, and aerial operations remain to be validated.
Flight 002 / The budget
What it costs.
And why.
Real ranges, built line by line from 2026 vendor pricing. Low is a lean build with direct-sourced gear. High is premium brands, union crews, and a fully fabricated hull. Firm numbers come from quotes during feasibility.
01
Phase 1 guest study
$38K–$94K
8–12 guests, three days, a TV-window rig we keep.
02
Full build, one time
$658K–$1.72M
Owned airship: structure, LED ring, cabin, audio, content.
03
Each festival
$167K–$356K
Power, cooling, crew, trucking, insurance, content re-skin.
Cost per boarding
$12–$29
Build cost spread over 6 festivals, plus that festival’s operating cost.
$7–$16 once the airship is owned and returns to a festival.
$37–$92 if a single festival paid for everything.
Based on the planning case above: 22,491 boardings across three days. A two-weekend festival roughly doubles boardings for about one more week of crew and rentals.
The window ring.
Curved screens are expensive. So the ring isn’t curved. It’s 24 flat LED bays set in a circle, and the airship’s window frames cover every seam. From a couch it reads as one continuous view of the sky.
- Deck
- 60 ft circle, seats 200
- Window ring
- 24 flat LED bays, 168 ft around
- Screen area
- 1,476 sq ft, 548 panels
- Pixel pitch
- P2.6, a tenth of an inch. Sharp from 9 ft
- Content canvas
- 17,307 × 1,172 pixels
- Power
- ~116 kW average, 250 kW generator
- Cooling
- 42 tons for a desert afternoon
- Service life
- 5–7 years of LED, many festivals
Recommended
LED ring, owned
$133K–$332K once
Recommended. Brightest, seamless behind the window frames, works with doors open. Pays for itself in one to two festivals versus renting.
Considered
LED ring, rented
$218K–$301K every festival
Fine-pitch rental runs $74+ per square foot per week. Two weeks on site costs more than owning.
Considered
Projection ring
$86K–$270K rented / $180K–$720K owned
Nine blended projectors. Needs total darkness, and guests' heads cast shadows on the view.
Considered
98-inch TV windows
$73K–$261K once
Cheapest honest test. Bezels read as window frames. That makes it the Phase 1 rig, not the flagship.
Line by line: where the money goes
The build (once)
Display and media
$193K–$493K
Published rates1,476 square feet of P2.6 LED at $65–$139 per square foot, frame and rigging (+20–40%), three processors, a four-output media server, and an optional 650-square-foot outdoor hull band so the crowd outside sees the flight too.
Structure and interior
$338K–$832K
Needs quotesThe biggest swing in the budget. A 60 ft event dome as the hidden frame ($80K–$150K), the airship envelope that makes it a landmark ($100K–$300K, the least-known number until a fabricator quotes), step-free flooring, couches for 200, the instrument-panel cabin, and spatial audio with seat shakers that sell the lift.
Content and engineering
$41K–$170K
Rates + estimatesA 10-minute panoramic flight rendered at 17K wide ($1,600–$11,000 per finished minute), plus stamped structural drawings and accessibility review.
Contingency (15%)
$86K–$224K
Rates + estimatesFirst builds of a new structure always find surprises. This is where they land.
Each festival
People and logistics
$94K–$186K
Rates + estimatesMore than half of every deployment. Ten-person install and strike crew over nine days, two LED techs for the whole run, 16 hosts and operators per show day across two shifts, travel, lodging, and three to four trailers.
Site and power
$27K–$55K
Rates + estimatesTwo weeks of generator and 42 tons of cooling. A festival power tie-in cuts this. The desert makes cooling non-negotiable.
Permits, insurance, upkeep
$24K–$68K
Needs quotesEvent insurance, fire marshal and structure permits, a content re-skin with that festival's stages and landmarks, and a 4% maintenance reserve on the owned LED.
Contingency (15%)
$22K–$46K
Rates + estimatesWeather days, extra crew, freight surprises.
Optional: the live aerial feed Not in the totals
$161K–$552K
to build the camera fleet
$26K–$62K
to fly it at each festival
Three tethered camera aerostats, 360 rigs on stabilized gimbals, bonded RF links, real-time stitching, and aviation review. Kept outside the totals above: the base plan flies recorded and rendered imagery, and live capture earns its place through its own feasibility track.
How it pays for itself.
Spread the build over six festivals and each festival has to cover $277K–$642K. Two ways to get there, and they stack.
To cover
$277K–$642K
Per festival: one-sixth of the build plus that festival’s operating cost.
Reserved boarding
$281K
If half of guests pay $25 to skip the line with a timed boarding. That alone covers the lean build.
Title sponsor
$0–$361K
The gap left after upgrades. With no upgrades, the sponsor carries $277K–$642K, inside the normal range for a festival activation.
Illustrative. Upgrade price and uptake are inputs in the cost model, not measured demand.
When the money moves.
Nobody writes a seven-figure check on day one. Each step is small enough to stop at, and earns the next one.
01 · Weeks 1–8
Guest study
$38K–$94K
Eight TV windows, a rendered flight, and 50 test guests. Answers one question: does the lift feel real?
02 · Months 2–4
Feasibility
$25K–$60K
Structural engineering, the site plan, and real quotes from the dome, envelope, and LED vendors. Paid from the build's engineering line.
03 · 6–9 months out
Fabrication
Most of the build
Order the LED, dome, envelope, and cabin. Typical terms put about half down at order and the rest on delivery. For an April festival, that means committing by the October before.
04 · Load-in
The festival
$167K–$356K
Twelve days on site: crew, power, cooling, trucking, insurance.
Large festival builds typically take six to nine months. Source
Ways to bring it down.
Skip the outdoor hull screens
$55K–$139K once
The crowd outside sees a sculpture, not the flight. Night projection can stand in.
Plug into festival power
$13K–$25K per festival
Only if the site has capacity near the pad.
Build a 44 ft deck, not 60 ft
$51K–$120K once, plus $7K–$13K per festival
Seats drop to about 150, and boardings drop with them.
Tour 10 festivals, not 6
Cost per boarding falls to $10–$23
Needs a tour commitment up front.
Not in these numbers.
- The festival's site or placement fee, and the security, medical, and cleaning the festival already runs
- Storage and insurance between festivals, roughly $2K–$5K a month for a warehouse bay
- Sales tax, and freight beyond a regional haul
- Sponsor creative: hull livery, branded content, activation staff
- The optional live aerial feed
For scale.
Permanent flying theaters cost tens of millions. A festival activation costs six to seven figures and is gone on Monday. The airship sits between them: a landmark that can be owned, and that goes on tour.
- $16–20M
- A permanent FlyOver flying theater, for about 60 riders. Source
- ~$60M
- Meow Wolf Denver, 90,000 sq ft of permanent immersive build. Source
- $100K–$1M+
- Typical cost of a festival brand activation in 2026. Source
- $70K
- A main-stage suite for 10 guests at a major desert festival, per weekend (2026). Source
- $549–$649
- A three-day general admission pass at a major desert festival in 2026. VIP from $1,199. Source
- $17
- A lemonade inside that same festival in 2026. About what one airship boarding costs. Source
Priced for the desert.
The desert shows up in the budget twice: 42 tons of cooling, and contingency for the weather days when wind closes the ship.
- 84–91°F
- Average April highs in Indio, with near-zero humidity. Source
- 102°F
- Record high on a major festival's 2025 opening Friday in Indio. Source
- 35 mph
- Gusts that canceled a 2026 main-stage set over stage safety. Source
- 2018
- An air-conditioned walk-in festival tower in 2018 proved guests will line up for a cool room. Source
For partners
The full cost model.
Nine tabs: every line, every formula, every source. Change the deck size, the screens, or how many festivals it tours, and the whole budget recalculates. Lines marked “estimate” are industry ranges waiting on vendor quotes.
Prepared by Joshua Logan. Updated September 2026.
Name and email, and the download link arrives right away.
For Partners
An artwork. A destination.
A new destination for the art program. Shape the commission with the host, then measure guest response and the case for bringing it back.
01
A landmark on the field
An illuminated airship silhouette creates a proposed meeting point and destination. Sightlines and queue placement would be agreed with the festival.
02
A moment worth sharing
A distinctive setting for guest photos and commissioned content. Sharing and reach would be measured during the pilot, with permission for any identifiable guest imagery.
03
Yours to brand
Potential hull livery, cabin content, and a sponsored flight log, subject to curatorial direction, rights, and a written partner agreement.
The math at target capacity Illustrative
- boardings / hour · planning case
- 625
- boardings / 12-hour day
- 7,497
- boardings / 3-day festival
- 22,491
- assumed operating uptime
- 70%
Illustrative planning case: 175 guests per 10-minute total cycle × 85% occupancy × 70% uptime × 12 hours × 3 days = 22,491 boardings. Hourly value rounded. Not unique guests or measured demand; subject to engineering and venue approval.
Shape a partner role
Proposed inventory
Hull livery, cabin content, flight naming, a sponsored flight log, and commissioned photo or video. Creative direction, usage rights, and any exclusivity need festival approval and a written agreement.
Measure the result
Completed journeys, queue conversion, dwell time, and agreed partner outcomes. Guest imagery and any leads require permission. Review the pilot report before committing to another event.
The visual proposal, with a separate pilot and feasibility brief.
Operations
Built for the site.
A site plan, a priced build, and an agreed operating envelope. These are the design commitments, engineering targets, and open questions for feasibility.
- FootprintFlat grass or hardstand pad for the moored ship and observation ring, plus a queue and egress apron sized for timed boarding groups.Engineering target
- HeightFull-size airship envelope over a single-story ring - tall enough to read across the grounds, engineered as a moored structure, never airborne.Engineering target
- Power & connectivityScreen ring, projection, audio, and climate load fed from festival power or dedicated generation; redundant wireless links carry the live camera-fleet feed.To be validated
- Load-in / load-outBuilt ahead of gates on the standard production calendar and struck after close - modeled on large-format festival structure builds.To be validated
- StaffingBoarding and queue crew, deck hosts, a flight-operations seat for the camera fleet and show feed, and safety coverage on every operating hour.To be validated
- Ingress, egress & queueStep-free ground-level boarding with no stairs or harnesses; timed entry in flight-sized groups keeps the queue footprint predictable.Design commitment
- Weather & windWind, lightning, heat, and rain can close the entire installation. Recorded footage is a feed fallback only while the cabin remains within agreed operating limits; engineers and the venue define monitoring, evacuation, and shutdown procedures.To be validated
- Emergency & accessibilityStandard venue egress compliance and accessible boarding by design; provisions finalized in engineering and venue safety review.Engineering target
- Permits, insurance & aerial opsStructure permitting, insurance, and tethered-camera-fleet approvals scoped with the venue, safety counsel, and aviation review during feasibility.To be validated
What the capacity numbers assume
The planning case uses 175 guests per 10-minute total cycle, 85% occupancy, and 70% uptime: about 625 boardings per hour, 7,497 per 12-hour day, and 22,491 across three days. A boarding is not necessarily a unique guest. These are model outputs, not verified demand or an approved occupancy. The scenario table above exposes the range and every input.
Festival-funded
The festival engages the installation as marquee infrastructure - a flagship attraction in the site plan, priced as a production line item.
Sponsor-funded
A title sponsor underwrites the build in exchange for the naming, livery, and content inventory below - the festival hosts, the brand flies it.
Revenue share / ticketed upgrade
Boarding runs as a reserved-upgrade experience with revenue shared across the festival, production partner, and project.
Indicative ranges are in the budget above. A firm budget follows a fit assessment and vendor quotes.
Where the project stands
Honest status- Built
- The complete visual world and guest journey; the interactive flight prototype on the Experience page; the concept deck.
- Modeled
- Throughput and capacity targets, the boarding cycle, the weather operating model, and the camera-fleet-to-cabin feed architecture.
- Next
- Feasibility engineering with a founding festival and production partners: structure, power, permitting, and a costed build plan.
What “founding partner” means here
A major outdoor music festival on open grounds, plus the production and sponsor partners to build with. The founding festival contributes site knowledge, operational integration, and co-funded feasibility engineering; in return it gets a proposed role in the debut, a voice in the final spec, and the debut of a landmark only it has. Any exclusivity requires agreement. The decision path and timeline are set together at the first briefing.
The pilot and feasibility brief is open — no form required
Straight answers
The questions producers ask first.
01Does it actually fly?
The guest pavilion stays on the ground. Screens, sound, and light create the sensation of flight. This removes passenger flight from the concept, but the structure, crowd operation, and any aerial camera system still require their own engineering and approvals.
02Is the footage on the screens real?
On this website the view is a computer-generated demonstration, not a live camera feed. The physical concept proposes approved aerial capture, with licensed recorded content for the first study and for feed interruptions. A flat camera feed alone does not make a seamless 360-degree view; capture, stitching, stabilization, and latency must be tested together.
03How many guests can board?
150–200 guests is a full-scale design target, not an approved occupancy. The initial screen-room study is proposed for 8–12 guests. Full-scale planning scenarios appear above with cycle time, occupancy, and downtime stated separately.
04Is it accessible?
Step-free boarding, room for mobility aids, seating, a stable floor, and a low-motion option are design goals. Large moving images can cause discomfort even in a stationary room. Guest testing and accessibility review must shape the final experience.
05What about heat, wind, and rain?
Wind, lightning, heat, and rain can affect both the structure and aerial cameras. Recorded imagery handles a lost feed only when the cabin remains safe to operate. Site-specific operating limits, monitoring, cooling, evacuation, and shutdown procedures must be agreed with the venue and engineers.
06What stage is the project at?
The concept artwork and interactive browser demo exist. The next proposal is a small guest study and costed feasibility work, followed by a decision on a festival pilot. No physical installation, live aerial system, or commercial returns are being presented as proven.
07What will it cost?
About $38K–$94K for the first guest study. The full airship is $658K–$1.72M to build once, then $167K–$356K each time it goes to a festival. Spread over six festivals, that is roughly $12–$29 per boarding. The budget section breaks down every line and why it costs what it does. Partners can request the full cost model.
08Why buy the screens instead of renting them?
Fine-pitch LED rents for $74 or more per square foot per week. The ring is about 1,500 square feet, and a festival keeps it on site about two weeks, so one rental costs $218K–$301K. Buying it costs $133K–$332K with frame and processors, and it keeps working for five to seven years.
Make the first flight possible