So I went to this festival called Afrikaburn. More people are familar with the great mothership “Burning Man” which happens every year in the desert of Nevada, USA and is much MUCH bigger. In many different countries smaller Burn festivals, which are held by the same principles and ideology are held annually and Afrikaburn is the one in South Africa. If you’re picturing a regular music festival now, you’re completely thinking in the wrong direction 🙂
So what is this Burn festival? What is it about? Well, I can give you my experience after having been there twice, and having loved it every single time.
One of the most important principles is probably Radical Self Reliance, meaning that everything (yes: EVERYTHING) that you will need in the course of the one week you have to bring yourself into the desert. Because there you can not buy anything. So every apple, piece of toast, beer and water bottle you will have to buy beforehand and then take it with you to the happening.
Radical Inclusion
Second most important principle: Leave no trace! Meaning, everything you brought to the desert, everything that wasn’t there before also shouldn’t be there anymore once you left the place. So you neatly pack up all your trash, every cigarette butt, every banana peel, every empty can of baked beans and take it with you until you find a place where you can legally and environmentally friendly dispose of it.
Third most important principle: Radical Self Expression. Meaning: everything goes, nothing must. You will see anything and everything at a burn festival when it comes to outfits, people go all the way to be their most beautiful, most expressive, most outgoing, most inventive selves. Some take advantage of the freedom of non-society and just go as god made them, completely naked through the crowds, while others dress up in a way the “real world” would disapprove of. So you will see the common straight suit & tie guy dancing in a pink tutu or the regular mom dressed only in body paint. And many many other impressive things. And the most beautiful thing about them is that there at the Burn, in the desert, a few hours from all signs of civilization they can be their alter egos, they can peacefully choose who they want to be, without judgement. Everyone exudes a kind of self confidence and state of being at peace, which I have never before experienced in any other place. And it’s contageous!!
Art at Afrikaburn
You feel welcomed, and accepted whereever you go, whoever you talk to. Complete strangers will come up to you, hug you, gift you a little something (due to the principal of gift giving, that is highly practiced) and you might never see them again, or you might end up having a conversation deeper and more meaningful than you usually do with people who you’ve known for ages. Anything can happen. Connections are made quite easily. People are open to meeting you (principle: Radical Inclusion) and the air of complete acceptance outside of societal values is the most freeing experience I’ve yet had.
Art is all around. Artists go there long before the festival starts to build their structures of sometimes incredible proportions right there in the middle of the desert. Objects of art are all over tankwa town (that’s the lovingly-given name of the festival grounds), so even if you head out and explore every day of the week you will still come across new pieces and sometimes remain there with your mouth open. When I saw some of the big structures for the first time, I could not comprehend that they built those just in order to have it burned to the ground then. I mean, it’s their work, their design, ideas and so on. How can they just set it up to have it burned down? Well, that’s what they do, and it’s magical.
pure joy
In a world where we are constantly over-exposed to technology, to media, to consumerism, where people sometimes struggle to have a conversation with you, because their eyes rather stick with their smartphone screens and not the person sitting opposite of them, it’s highly unusual first to understand the magic of a burn. At the end of the day everything is trancient. You will not take your possessions with you when you die one day, nor the money you saved up in your bank account. Gathering around a huge wooden structure underneath a star-filled night sky and watching the flames consume the wood, watching the glow, feeling the heat and the presence of people in awe around you, it’s magical. Several hundred people are mesmerized by that: just fire. Flames burning. It doesn’t need more than that. It’s emotional, makes you reconsider some things, lets you move things into perspective and accept the transience on various different levels in life.
Piece of Art that got burned
After a whole week of not needing a phone, money or the time it feels very strange at first to come back to civilization. At first you are tempted to smile at every stranger you see on the street, after all that’s what you’ve been doing for the past week; but here people are not used to it. I like to think that it would be nice to try and keep the burn spirit alive not only inside myself but also to my surroundings for as long as possible, because my world is a better place when I do. 🙂