AfrikaBurn is a pegged as a blueprint for a more connected, compassionate, and conscious world; one that embraces spontaneity and creativity in the heart of the Tankwa Karoo desert. What happens when thousands come together to create a city composed of art, music, and free food?
Imagine a place where money has no meaning, strangers become family, and the desert blooms with colour, creativity, and chaos.
Welcome to AfrikaBurn—South Africa’s wildest, freest, and most radically expressive gathering, tucked deep into the sun-baked Tankwa Karoo desert, between the Northern and Western Cape provinces.
Each year, in the sun-scorched plains of South Africa’s Tankwa Karoo desert, a fleeting utopia springs to life. A regional offshoot of the iconic Burning Man festival in Nevada, US, AfrikaBurn is back for its 2025 edition from April 28 to May 4. The theme that couldn’t be more fitting for the unpredictable desert: “Out of the Blue.”
Once a year, thousands of dreamers, artists, makers, and free spirits roll into this arid, unforgiving land—not to attend a festival, but to build an entire city from scratch.
It’s a place where you can be an artist, a dancer, a dreamer, and a builder. Together, this community creates amazing art, wild costumes, captivating performances, cozy camps, vibrant music, and vehicles that look like they’ve escaped from a fairytale – all powered by the spirit of giving.
AfrikaBurn’s founding document outlines key objectives such as advancing a culture of creativity, promoting diverse artistic expression, and building inclusive communities.
Inspired by the spirit of Burning Man, the event follows 10 core principles:
Radical Inclusion. Gifting. Decommodification. Radical Self-Reliance. Radical Self-Expression. Communal Effort. Civic Responsibility. Leave No Trace. Participation. Immediacy. And, in the spirit of Spinal Tap, AfrikaBurn turned it up to eleven – “Each One, Teach One”—a reminder that knowledge shared is culture built.
According to the event promoters, the experience is beyond the spectacle. It isn’t just a party—it’s a philosophy in motion. It’s about radical self-expression, but also radical self-reliance.
There’s basic infrastructure—loos, roads, medics, signs—but the rest? No shops, no ads, no sales—just some ice, if you need it. Everything else is freely shared or brought: food, music, hugs, poems, even neon tutus. It’s not always easy, but this no-money rule creates something rare—a space where people give for the joy of it and connect without masks.
Theme camps pop up like tiny neighbourhoods, each with its own vibe—tea bars, live music, storytelling circles, yoga domes, or just random, brilliant madness. Towering art installations rise from the sand, while surreal, souped-up “Mutant Vehicles” glide across the dust like mechanical animals from another planet.
AfrikaBurn was co-founded by people like Monique Schiess, who saw it not just as a festival, but as an experiment in archetypal culture—one rooted in anarchy, creativity, and collective energy. It was meant to grow from the ground up, with no top-down control.
Officially known as Afrika Burns Creative Projects NPC, the event operates with a mission rooted in fostering creativity, inclusivity, and positive social change.
Beyond the well-known annual event, AfrikaBurn actively engages in developmental projects that uplift marginalized communities and create opportunities for cultural and knowledge exchange.
Through local and international partnerships, the organization also supports environmental sustainability and the preservation of non-human life, demonstrating its commitment to both social and ecological progress.
At the heart of it all is the San Clan sculpture—a towering symbol of unity and creativity. At week’s end, it’s set ablaze in a ritual, marking both an end and a beginning.
AfrikaBurn says the desert must be left untouched exactly as one found it. As for the patrons, the aim is to carry forward the experiences and let the ideas that were planted in the desert, germinate in the real world.
