T-rex designed and built by Mark Verge. Mark is pictured with the dinosaur.

“Any other time, we’d let you see the space. But today there are elephants in the way.” That’s not the sort of thing you typically hear when booking an event. Or at least I don’t. But maybe people that play places like Madison Square Garden are used to that. After hearing it, my mind raced back and forth a bit between a deep frustration that I wasn’t able to see the space I’d be working in right at that moment and the thought, “who cares? I’m getting to do an installation in Madison Square Garden.”

Yeah, that’s right. The largest Airigami installation to date will appear this coming August in the Expo Center at MSG. Elastic Park, a recreation of Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, will be built, entirely out of balloons. Mark Verge, a fantastic artist that I’ve been working with for years on Balloon Manor (and other projects), has been working for some time on dinosaurs. We’ve been talking for a while about creating them at the scale and in the environment they should be. Finally, with the help of NBC Universal, we’re doing it right. 100,000 balloons, a 36,000 square foot venue, and 40 artists will honor the late Michael Crichton.

The largest Airigami projects have always benefited health-related charities. This one is no different. Mr. Crichton passed away from cancer just recently. Many Airigami crew members have have experienced cancer in their families. We’ve teamed up with the American Cancer Society to present the latest of our projects, and we’re looking forward to raising a lot of money for an organization that does so much good. All money from ticket sales will go directly to the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge.