A Victoria couple and their friends have spent the better part of a year transforming an old school bus into a treehouse, complete with a toadstool lounge and a rooftop forest deck that doubles as a dance floor.

But this treehouse is not for kids — unless you count the inner child.

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This week, the group is taking the converted bus to Burning Man, an annual counter-culture arts festival in the Nevada desert that began in the 1980s and draws upwards of 50,000 people. The treehouse will be one of 500 art cars at the event.

“Often, we come back inspired to make something the next year, but then it fizzles out,” said Melanie Golder, 40, a policy analyst with the provincial government. “This year, we were determined to do something.”

Golder and her husband Mike Gano, 38, called on their friends and the Victoria Burning Man community to help. The Kindle Arts Society is a non-profit local group serving roughly 300 “burners” with events throughout the year.

“We knew we wanted to do an art car. … Everybody liked the treehouse concept. People all have great memories of treehouses when they were little, whether they fell out and broke their arm, ate a mud pie, made out for the first time or read Playboys. And it’s a nod to the B.C. forest,” said Golder.

Golder and Gano, who met at Burning Man seven years ago, bought the bus up-Island for $2,600 and put a few thousand dollars worth of repairs into it. Their core group pitched in $8,000 and they’ve fundraised the rest of the $20,000 needed for the project with a treehouse-themed New Year’s Eve event and parties with local DJs, including Gano.

“Eight of us are DJs, so having a great sound system on the bus was a must,” he said.

Gano said they’ve drawn from the many professional talents of their group and family. Golder’s father, an architect, helped draw plans for the rooftop deck. Her brother, a shop teacher, helped build stairs. A set designer and a welder assisted on the exterior.

Friends like Trish Reimer, a business analyst with the provincial government, designed their website and fundraised. Electrical engineer Gabrielle Odowichuk helped design the lighting on the bus to respond to the music.

Then there are the friends who helped sew fabric leaves and toadstools for the wheelchair-accessible “chill space” inside the bus.

“We had mad sewing parties to sew hundreds of leaves,” Golder said.

The plan is to drive the bus around the Burning Man “playa,” taking visitors on art tours and stopping for music parties. The treehouse will be monitored by the festival’s Department of Mutant Vehicles.

Wally Bomgaars, Burning Man playa safety manager, said the festival receives thousands of applications for art cars, but limits the number permitted for safety reasons, given the number of cyclists and pedestrians at the site.

He said the art cars “are part of what adds to the overwhelming sense of wonder that is on display at the event,” and notes the steampunk-esque mechanical Octopus “El Pulpo Mecanico” by artist Duane Flatmo and train car “Neverwas Haul” by Shannon Wheeler as recent extraordinary examples.

“Everyone is an artist or participant who all bring their unique vision to share with the community,” he said.

After Burning Man, the treehouse bus will return to Victoria and be used for festivals and parades. For more information, visit theartcar.wordpress.com. For more on Burning Man, go to burningman.com.

spetrescu@timescolonist.com

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