Organization, mayhem and madness.
Over a 100 kms from any tar road in the middle of the Karoo they built Tankwa town which is essentially Afrikaburn. The conditions are harsh, in fact so harsh that ants or even cockroaches cannot survive, but you as one of ten thousand must make life comfortable for about 5 days. Gale force winds, drugs and alcohol all make the entire event quite difficult to contemplate.
Afrikaburn is to me a combination of Mad Max, Moulin rouge and Steampunk. Artists, engineers, architects and strange and interesting people all descend on this desolate land and transform it into a virtual party wonderland with massive wooden artworks and mad max style mutant vehicles which crawl all over the place.
The artworks are systematically burnt which is quite a sight and I find it quite cathartic in many ways. It is a pyromaniacs heaven.
There are all sorts of people at Afrikaburn. A man dressed as a clown and high on some unspecified drug could just be a CEO of a top listed company. You should not underestimate anybody and should you choose to, you do so at your own peril. Peeps from all over the world swoop down on this festival of wonderment and madness to find something special that only they know they can find.
You can’t buy anything at Afrikaburn not even a sausage. You are not allowed to sell anything which makes me wonder what so many drug dealers are doing there. I suppose they have to give free drugs which explains a lot.
Afrikaburn is whatever you want it to be but one thing is for certain it’s not a 5 star hotel in the Caribbean with a Burger King around the corner.
