The Kwalq Bus is a giant neon frog celebrating transformation, carrying people to new adventures across water and land.
For Burning Man 2026 our plan is to transform the Thataway Bus into a giant neon frog, renamed “Kwalq” because that is the international sound of the frog. Not ribbit, not croak — but kwalq like a duck. It will be the same crew, same bus, same armature, same lights, etc., as the Thataway Bus, but now in the shape of a giant frog.
The “Kwalq” project is simple yet stunning image in design — we convert a 30 foot metro bus into a giant neon frog, with the goal of transporting people meandering across the playa or taking a ride with us. The idea behind the Kwalq Bus is to celebrating transformation, from tadpole to polywog to frog, from water to air, carrying people to new adventures across water and land. Being a giant green frog, we will be a notable addition to the horizon as people visually scan across all the blinky lights. This will fit this years’ theme really well, Axis Mundi, as the frog is metaphorically connecting people across natural realities, and across their own internal states during their metamorphoses.
The top of the bus is usually a dance party. As a large vehicle that drives between the more iconic projects on the playa, we will literally be pointing the way, because that is what Burning Man is all about, random experiences that occur through opportunistic meandering. We imagine as people are going in one direction, they will see our giant neon frog, and say, ok, let’s suddenly change direction and go left now.
As a crew, we try to reinforce the notion it’s not about getting anywhere in a hurry, but rather about having a good time wherever you are, and whoever you are with at that moment. We seek to increase serendipitous connections and have found over the years that our mutant vehicle projects have provided a central, orienting experience to many people as they jump on and meet the same new friends over the span of several nights. We love hosting a party on the bus, so to speak.
The big eyes will be made out of animated LEDs, and we hope to have them completed for the regional event Critical NW. Here’s the concept sketch for the installation at Critical NW. We’re calling it the “Heck Yeah toad” in this form.
