Burn Culture: from Burning Man to AfrikaBurn

One of the art installations at the seventh annual AfrikaBurn.

Hotel Reviews & Photos by: OTPYM

“Aw mate, you mus, mus, mus come back for AfrickaBurn! It is the mos’ fun you can have IN…YOUR…LIFE!”

And with that invitation in October 2013, the glint of a flicker of a ray of hope began to take shape in my heart that I would experience a new “playa” in the African desert. I purposely made it a very tiny ember that I refused to fan as my knowledge of several previous Burns in the US lead me to believe that the chances of being able to figure out the logistics of how to actively participate in a country so far away were about as remote as…well, the Karoo Desert in the Northern Cape of South Africa.

There is a saying, which I now know to be ubiquitous across all Burning Man gatherings; “The Playa Always Provides.” At its most base level, it means that the gifting community, combined with the self-reliance of the participants, generally will generate all that you need whilst you’re out celebrating life in one of the most inhospitable places on earth.

But at its most extreme, you are confronted with the fact that perhaps there are forces at work that propel moments, emotions and humans in ways that seem to completely dispel “coincidence”.

One of the extravagant – and peacock inspired – art installations erected in the desert.

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of Burning Man, it is a 20+-year-old annual pilgrimage to the Nevada desert to erect a functioning city that defies almost all ability to accurately describe because it is different for every person who attends. The size and scope and the fleeting moments you experience in this vast place booming with art, music and culture is impossible to capture outside your own point of view. Of course there are some immutable laws that help describe a bit:

-Nothing (save ice and coffee) are for sale.

-If you bring it in to the desert, you are bringing it out of the desert.

-You judge no one and respect everyone.

-Exercise radical self-reliance, don’t depend on others.

-Participate. You can’t fully experience it if you don’t share in it.

Our camp mates standing in front of their installation pre-burn.

I have been to four “Burns” as they are called, with a ton of regional parties and Burning Man theme camp fundraisers in between. I was excited to attend one in another part of the world to see how the culture and energy of Burning Man translated.

At its best, the culture can be a beacon of utopian humanity. At its worst, it’s a really good time with insanely interesting people who sometimes ignore the qualities listed above. With two bulging duffle bags of gear, desert ready costumes and an open mind, I boarded a Qatar Airways flight from New York to Capetown to see which of the two I would find at AfrikaBurn.

A pirate-themed camp. Cocktails served on-board, just bring your own cup.

In almost every instance, the destinations are generally chosen for their remote nature. Black Rock City (BRC) in Nevada is so devoid of life, that it makes the Sahara look welcoming. As part of the national parks system, Black Rock Desert is a 400 square mile prehistoric dried lakebed, the floor of which is a hardpan, alkaline, perfectly flat surface. It’s like being on the moon, except it’s 115° and gravity still exists. The only thing I can confirm that lives in the region are extremely hardy micro-organisms that live within the alkaline silt. How do I know this? A friend once knelt down to pound a stake into the ground not thinking that the small, open knick on his knee would be a wonderfully welcoming environment for said micro-organism and within 24 hours, he almost had to have his leg amputated.

This is some hardcore, edge of civilization shit.

Getting to BRC is no mean feat itself. The nearest “towns” (and I use that term extremely loosely) are Gerlach and Empire. While I’m sure pleasant for the folks that live there, it would seem from outward appearances to be the kind of places Sylvester Stallone would be tasked with cleaning up against a renegade law officer in some straight to DVD movie. One of the hallmarks of going to Burning Man is getting to Burning Man. The “road” (again, a term used loosely) into the festival is a single file dust and rock strewn path with a posted speed limit of 15mph.

Michaela Guzy, founder of OTPYM, taking a rest from the desert heat on a newly-constructed serpent.

Your best bet for adequately supplying yourself for your week long trek in this crazy environment is Reno, 120 miles to the south of BRC. Remember, everything you bring with you, you have to bring back out, so strategically purchasing ONLY WHAT YOU NEED, is critical. (Some might argue that a massive 80’ rubber ducky that plays house music and shoots fire out of its crown is an absolute necessity, but I digress.) You need two gallons of water per person per day. And that’s just for drinking. If you want to bath, wash dishes etc, you’ll need to bring more. So depending on what type of vehicle you’re bringing space becomes a hot commodity. Which is why many people band together and create these theme camps, which are essentially communities within the broader city—each one organized around a specific interest or gift they want to share with the camp as a whole. At Burning Man you’ll find all manner of theme camps. One will be formed in a homage to a wild west saloon. Another will be dedicated to giving massages. Still another makes pancakes for anyone who wants them between 7AM and 10AM every morning. There’s one for mini-golf, a luxury, five-star hotel with a Michelin star chef and even one that brings out a full size roller skating rink, complete with 300 pairs of skates and a crane from which they suspend a giant disco ball to hang above the rink.

But the hallmark to any good Burning Man is the art.

Every year, some of the world’s most amazingly inventive and talented artists compete for grants from the non-profit set up to support Burning Man. They are awarded grants based on their success as artists, the ambition of their art and the theme for that particular year. The winner essentially receives a massive gallery in the desert. If you’re into experiential art, there’s nothing like it on the planet.

So how does this Burning Man experience translate to AfrikaBurn in the Northern Cape of South Africa? Knowing that we needed to clothe, feed, transport and protect ourselves for the next six days in the desert, I had roughly five hours to gather all the provisions we would need. Even under ideal conditions and a Wal-Mart in hand this is a tall order, so I set out as quickly as I could to secure a vehicle. We were generously provided a vehicle by the Tourism Board of the Northern Cape via Avis to get us up to Karoo National Park. Knowing that the last time we traversed Southern Africa in an SUV we lost two full tires to the unrelenting rough roads, I was a little apprehensive when I was handed the keys to a Volkswagon Polo. Given the additional weight we’d be transporting up to camp, it felt like a long shot that we’d make it all the way unscathed…especially when we saw the sign turning off SA Route 355 and saw this:

The sign said, “This road eats tyres!”

Well that little German Volkswagon passed no less than seven sport utility vehicles with flat tires, and made it all the way to camp without incident. One of the immediate differences between the Burning Man and AfrikaBurn was the infrastructure.  AfrikaBurn, in its seventh year, certainly had an adequate number of staff, but some were just not as well informed as one would expect. After being told that we couldn’t drive to our camp site because it was after 11PM and we would have to stay at the entrance to the camp or walk our gear all the way to our plot, I employed the classic “I’m totally ignorant and don’t understand what you’re saying” defense.

Worked like a charm.

By some divine “playa intervention” even though it was past midnight and most of the people with whom we were camping were out enjoying the nighttime festivities, we managed to find our camp. And not only did we find our camp in a pitch black desert of 10,000 partiers, we found our tent—set up and neatly waiting for us. This wasn’t just a miracle; someone was going to have to be canonized.

Sunset over AfrikaBurn.

See this spectacle of an event at night both disorienting and exhilarating. It’s kind of like being a kid the first time you’re out in the dark playing ghosts in the graveyard. There’s something other worldly about being enveloped in inky blackness with only the distant lights of art cars and the occasional flame thrower lighting up the night sky. It makes it exceedingly difficult to judge distance or direction when there is virtually nothing to scale. What appears to be a close by tent with lights on turns out to be a 30 foot tall alpine chalet extremely far off in the distance.

The constant din of thumping music cascading across the desert is also oddly discombobulating. Because of the reverberation of deep base and the overall cacophony of massive theme camps blasting music toward the center of camp, being in the middle of it makes it difficult to figure out where the music you like is coming from. And then, out of nowhere you see…what the hell is that? Is it… No, couldn’t be.

The ultimate art cart, perfectly suited for Africa, a glowing rhino with a flaming horn #savetherhino.

Yep. It’s a giant glowing rhinoceros playing sick house music with flames shooting out of its horn. This feels like “home” as they say in Black Rock City.

I had assumed AfrikaBurn was going to be a little bit like traveling back in time, a more primitive version of the Burning Man experience I knew. But I couldn’t have been more off base. There were a great many sophisticated camps, art cars and experiences to be had, on par and in some cases better than the North American version. One stand out example was the 10-foot high, perfectly replicated R2D2 that tooled around the playa blasting perfect projection mapping onto the art and camps throughout the week.

Oversized R2D2 in the desert.

The other would be a sister camp who turned a double decker convertible bus into a rolling boom box that would put Disorient (One of the pillars of the Burning Man community) to shame.

But most mesmerizing were actually the festival goers themselves. While a good many of the people that attend Burning Man are extremely handy and immensely creative people, they come from largely urban environments so camping isn’t always a strong suit. Hence, a lot of rental RV’s get trashed over the course of the week. By contrast, the residents of AfrikaBurn appear to be the more experienced version of Bear Grylls. We saw more custom built Land Rover Discoveries outfitted with every conceivable piece of camping gear imaginable than an entire American armored battalion. These are vehicles that would allow two people to comfortably live in the bush anywhere from 20-30 days without the need for water or refueling. They are the luxury travel experience for the AfrikaBurn crowd and yet, seemingly almost everyone had them. Camping and South Africans are no joke.

A fellow burner & camp mate gifting a sweet treat: giant pink & white marshmallows.

I could go into an exhaustive side-by-side comparison of the two festivals, but that would miss the larger point. The fact of the matter is, that across the planet there is a very real movement predicated on the belief that we are passionate, creative and sentient creatures that deserve to be expressed and respected for it. I am happy to report that although AfrikaBurn is still in its formative years and there was still a lot of growth to be achieved by the community in the sense of policing each other and the concept of MOOP (Matter Out Of Place) the general vibe, creativity and energy of the people present was a carbon copy of my North American Burning Man experiences. If you can take the time and have the requisite resources on the ground in South Africa, I highly recommend checking out the experience in the Tawnka Town, Karoo.

The sun sets on AfrikaBurn.

A GUIDE FOR POST BURN:

And a note for first timers, once it’s all over, I’d highly suggest a proper detox and dusting off en route back to Cape Town and reality. And after sleeping in a tent for a few nights sans shower, a little luxury is highly recommended, we chose:

Views of the grounds at La Residence.

La Residence in the heart of the Franschhoek wine country. Delicious French food, amazing wine, opulent grounds with abundant springbok (the national animal), a sick spa and very relevant in this case– every suite carries a individual theme, but each boasts large showers and claw footed tubs.

One of the pools overlooking the ocean at Birkenhead House.

Birkenhead House is located on the rugged coast of Hermanus (the whale trail). This family beach house turned boutique hotel serves up some of the best food we ate in South Africa, is a short drive to the smaller wine trail of the Hemel & Aarde Valley (translation: Heaven and Earth) and among the many coastal activities offered, you can select self or guided walks along the cliffs.

A view of the pool area at Kensington Place, Table Mountain serves as a nice back drop.

Kensington Place is perfect for an intimate Palm Beach transplanted in Cape Town feel located just off the trendy Kloof Street and the views of Table Mountain aren’t too shabby either.

The Mount Nelson in Cape Town is perfect for history buffs or those who prefer a larger luxury hotel experience. The bar has just been redone and the spa uses local Africology products. The grounds and gardens are vast and lush, and the hotel offers unbeatable views of Table Mountain.

For more tips on South Africa please watch our videos on unexpected adventures in Cape Town and wine and great whites in the Western Cape. And keep an eye out for our GoPro video from AfrikaBurn!