AfrikaBurn is a community of participants who come together to create art, costume, performance, theme camps, music, mutant vehicles and much, much more. All of this is created through a volunteer and gifting culture.
The main annual AfrikaBurn event takes place in the Tankwa Karoo, located between the Northern Cape and Western Cape Provinces of South Africa, usually at the end of April every year.
Originally called Afrika Burns, the first planned event in 2007 at Stonehenge Farm in the Northern Cape, was cancelled due to flooding. The inaugural event ‘Tribe’ took place in November of that year.
The event was renamed through a public participation process to “AfrikaBurn” in 2008, due to concerns about negative interpretation. The emphasis was shifted from something (‘burns’) that happens to Africa, to something (a ‘burn’) that happens in Africa.
In 2010 the event was moved earlier in the year to the end of April because the mild autumn weather better suited the event, and so that a South African public holiday (or two) would fall over the event period.
2019 was the last year AfrikaBurn was held at Stonehenge Farm. In 2022 AfrikaBurn was hosted on Quaggafontein for the first time.