AfrikaBurn

A festival inspired by the famous Burning Man ([1]) festival in the Nevada desert that attracts around 50 000 people, AfrikaBurn ([2]) is a festival created by participants who gather once a year in the Tankwa Karoo to create a temporary city of art, theme camps, costume, music and performance. A village of tents (Tankwa Town) springs up around art installations and sculptures for the six-day event.

Afrika Burns Creative Projects (AfrikaBurn) was created in 2007 as a Not-For-Profit Company, with the intention that it would serve as a vehicle for the co-ordination of a South African Burning Man regional event. The initial directors of the organisation were Lil Black, Paul Jorgenson, Robert Weinek, Monique Schiess and Michael ‘t Sas-Rolfes.

The event has been running since 2007, with all events to date held on a private farm called Stonehenge, which is adjacent to the Tankwa Karoo National Park. The farm is very isolated, as it is situated half way along the R355, a 250km long untarred road between Calvinia and Ceres in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa.

The event was originally called AfrikaBurns, however due to concerns about the name, the new name, AfrikaBurn, was officially announced via email in 2008. In 2010 the event was moved earlier in the year.

Its mission statement rewads: "AfrikaBurn is a participant-created movement, an experiment in inclusive community building, decommodification, creativity, self-reliance and radical self-expression. It is a chance to invent the world anew."