THE NORTHERN Cape will play host to the popular AfrikaBurn event for the last time next year, as the AfrikaBurn organisation announced yesterday that the event will be relocated to a new site, situated in the Western Cape, in 2021.
AfrikaBurn, the week-long event described as “a temporary city of art”, has been held in the Northern Cape since 2007, at Stonehenge Private Reserve (fondly known as Tankwa Town) in the Tankwa Karoo.
AfrikaBurn is the spectacular result of the creative expression of participants from across the globe, who gather once a year to create a temporary city of art, music and performance. The event is created through a volunteer culture of attendees. Approximately 13 000 people attended the event in 2019.
The AfrikaBurn organisation announced yesterday that it would “bid farewell” to Stonehenge Private Reserve as its host in 2020 and that Tankwa Town would “rise from the dust” at its new location - Quaggafontein and Vaalfontein Farm, also in the Tankwa Karoo. The property lies just below the Northern Cape border, within the Western Cape provincial boundary.
“That the property is in proximity to the Cederberg-Tankwa Wilderness Corridor and that the northern boundary of the property borders the Tankwa Karoo National Park, places it well as far as plans to preserve and/or restore areas of biodiversity go,” AfrikaBurn head of communications Travis Lyle said yesterday.
The property is owned by the Mapula Trust, which has given AfrikaBurn the use of the property in “usufruct”.
Usufruct is the “legal right given by an owner to someone who is not the owner, to use the owner’s property for a certain period”. The agreement reached with the Mapula Trust grants AfrikaBurn permission to hold the AfrikaBurn event and any other initiatives that effect and further the objectives of the organisation in accordance with their 11 guiding principles
Explaining some considerations that led to the decision to move, Lyle said that the space required for the event size has meant that, as the event had grown from 10 000 to 13 000 attendees in the last five years, space at Stonehenge Private Reserve had become a challenge. This resulted in some very densely camped areas - and these were a concern from a health and safety aspect, in terms of providing access zones for emergency and fire response teams.
“An additional constraint is the space available for the placement of many large artworks (some of which require significant distance between them for artistic or practical reasons) and theme camps and sound systems. These, in terms of their sound footprint in proximity to other sound stages, artworks and camping zones, similarly require space to be placed appropriately. Curatorially, having more breathing space for artworks and activities on the Binnekring is also important,” Lyle said.
He added that it’s important that the event’s infrastructural elements can be developed to become more efficient and sustainable over the long term, in terms of storage and maintenance.
“This move provides AfrikaBurn with a new blank canvas, a space to accelerate projects not directly related to our event. It means a chance to dream, a chance to innovate and experiment - and a chance to invent the world anew. The potential is huge - and something worth getting very excited about, as it offers our operational team and community a chance to collaborate on ways to develop our event’s layout and infrastructure in new, innovative and sustainable ways,” Lyle said.
From the perspective of participants, the challenges of the Tankwa Karoo’s desert climate and landscape will remain the same.
“Still accessible from the R355, the landscape will still be rocky beneath our wheels, feet and camps, ringed by mountains and incredible Tankwa sunrises and sunsets - and the Tafelberg will still be in sight on the horizon - but the shape of Tankwa Town may change, in response to a new landscape that will differ in some respects to that of Stonehenge,” Lyle said.
When asked if AfrikaBurn would be “abandoning” the Northern Cape, Lyle reacted with a definite “not at all”.
“AfrikaBurn is unbound by provincial borders and we’ll continue to support the people of the Tankwa (e. Elandsvlei School and the karretjiemense). Resources will still be allocated to participation by Northern Cape artists and projects in the wider AfrikaBurn movement,” Lyle said.
He added that the Province would still benefit economically from the event.
“The Northern Cape will still benefit from the influx of visitors travelling from the northern side of the event site and overnighting in small towns such as Kimberley, Williston and Calvinia (the last stop before hitting the R355 dirt road that leads to the event site), as well as buying supplies along the way,” Lyle said.
AfrikaBurn has hosted several community outreach programmes in the Northern Cape.
Gates to AfrikaBurn 2020 open on April 27 next year, when it will be hosted in the Northern Cape for the last time.