CAMPING CONT ‘EPHEMEROPOLIS’ CONTENTS “…an Ephemeropolis, or evanescent city, fleeting in the dust and smoke of their imaginations…” - D.S. Black GUIDING PRINCIPLES 3-4 BEFORE YOU GO, PREPARE 5-6 Rising like a dusty mirage out of the Karoo heat, there’s a city that many call home. It’s a manifestation of our collective imagination and the ON ARRIVAL 7-8 culmination of our collective efforts. It comes and goes, and ebbs and flows. It’s transient, temporary and transitory. It’s neither here, nor there. PARTICIPATE 9-10 It is real in its unrealness. BASICS 11 CONSENT 31-32 MEDICAL INFO 33-34 “Out of nothing, we created everything.” SUPPLIER DEPOT 12 – Larry Harvey NEW IN 2019 13-14 FIRE, FIRE SAFETY 35-40 Sinking into the sands of time, every artwork will be taken down or CAMPING 15-16 PARENTING 41-42 burned, every camp will be packed away, and every Mutant Vehicle MEDIA & PHOTOGRAPHY 43-46 dismantled. This city we manifested will disappear, remaining only in our CAMPING CONT 17 minds. What a beautiful, astounding, priceless thing. BE WATERWISE 18 BIKING 47-48 For more info on our 2019 theme, click here. MAP 19-20 MUTANT VEHICLES 49-50 LEAVE NO TRACE 21-22 DMV COMMANDMENTS 51-52 WHAT IS AFRIKABURN? IN TANKWA TOWN 23-24 RULES OF THE ROAD 53-54 You are. You build the camps, the art and the mutant SOUND & QUIET 25-26 GETTING THERE & DIRECTIONS 55-58 vehicles. You’re the performer – and the audience. There’s no ‘them’ – there’s just us, and we’re all in it DECOMMODIFICATION 27-28 PLANES, DRONES & AIRCRAFTS 59-60 together. AfrikaBurn is a Burning Man regional event in South Africa, and you don’t ‘attend’ AfrikaBurn - RANGERS 29 THE LEGAL STUFF 61-62 you create it. All you have to do is to participate. PERSONAL SAFETY 30 CREDITS 63-34 AfrikaBurn takes place in the remote and somewhat inhospitable Tankwa Karoo, in the Northern Cape Province. PHOTO BY HENNIE NIEMAND PHOTO BY 01 02 COMMUNAL EFFORT PARTICIPATION RADICAL INCLUSION Our community values creative Our community is committed to Everyone should be able to be a part cooperation and collaboration. a radically participatory ethic. of AfrikaBurn. As an intentional LEAVING NO TRACE community, committed to inventing the We strive to produce, promote and We believe that transformative Our community respects the world anew, we actively pursue protect social networks, public change, whether in the individual or environment. We are committed mechanisms to address imbalances spaces, works of art, and methods in society, can occur only through to leaving no physical trace of and overcome barriers to participation, of communication that support the medium of deeply personal our activities wherever we gather. especially in consideration of past, such interaction. participation. We achieve being current and systemic injustice. We clean up after ourselves and through doing. Everyone is invited endeavour, whenever possible, to CIVIC to work. Everyone is invited to play. We welcome and respect the stranger. leave such places in a better state RESPONSIBILITY We make the world real through Anyone can belong. than when we found them. We value civil society. Community actions that open the heart. members who organize events RADICAL SELF- should assume responsibility for IMMEDIACY public welfare and endeavour to Immediate experience is, in RELIANCE AfrikaBurn encourages the EACH ONE communicate civic responsibilities many ways, the most important TEACH ONE touchstone of value in our culture. individual to discover, exercise to participants. They must As a self-reliant community, we believe We seek to overcome barriers and rely on his or her inner also assume responsibility for the responsibility of spreading our that stand between us and a resources. conducting events in accordance culture lies with each and every one recognition of our inner selves, with national and local laws. of us. All of us are custodians of our the reality of those around us, RADICAL SELF- culture – when the opportunity presents participation in society, and EXPRESSION DECOMMODIFICATION itself, we pass knowledge on. In order to preserve the spirit of contact with a natural world Radical self-expression arises gifting, our community seeks to exceeding human powers. No idea from the unique gifts of the THESE PRINCIPLES AREN’T create social environments that can substitute for this experience. individual. No one other than COMMANDMENTS, AND THEY’RE NOT RULES – THEY’RE IDEALS THAT are unmediated by commercial the individual or a collaborating OFFER GUIDELINES TO HOW WE AS sponsorships, transactions, or GIFTING group can determine its content. A COMMUNITY CAN REINVENT THE advertising. We stand ready We are devoted to acts of gift It is offered as a gift to others. In WORLD, AND OURSELVES. IN SUMMARY, to protect our culture from giving. The value of a gift is this spirit, the giver should respect such exploitation. We resist the unconditional. Gifting does the rights and liberties of the DON’T BE KAK, substitution of consumption for not contemplate a return or an recipient. JUST BE LEKKER. participatory experience. exchange for something of equal value. 03 GUIDING PRINCIPLES 04 AS YOU PREPARE FOR THE DESERT, REMEMBER THAT YOU’RE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOURSELF AT ALL TIMES. Use lots of common sense: you need to bring everything you need to the desert, including all food, water, shelter, fuel, and basic first aid. And then you need to take it all back – because this is a Leave No Trace event. Before you arrive make sure you have your ticket - printed or on a phone / device (with battery). Make 100% sure your name is on your ticket, and that you bring photo ID to the gate PREPERATION. with you. Our gate crew will need this to verify your ticket and can’t let you in if the details on your ID and ticket don’t match. Duct tape & cable ties – because they ESSENTIALS hold the universe together! THIS AIN’T NO PARTY. THIS AIN’T NO Bringing wood? Bring a brazier or braai - DISCO. THIS IS ONE SERIOUS DESERT campfires on the ground are FANDANGO AND YOU MUST BRING: NOT permitted. Your ticket & photo ID for entry (SA ID, Recycling bins: you’ll need one for wet driver’s licence or passport) – ensure the waste, and others for paper, plastic name on your ticket is the same name in and metal / glass. Check out local area your ID/Passport. recycling depots, and use them on your way home – there’s nowhere for you to Vehicle Pass (one per vehicle). Caravans leave your trash on site. and trailers don’t need a VP - but motorcycles do. DO NOT BRING 5 litres of water per person per day Sure, it’s a burn you’re going to, but there are some items that are seriously not wanted Enough food and beverages for the duration at the event, and all for the same reason: of your entire stay they’re dangerous, either as mobile arson, or Shelter, bedding, warm & cool clothing to critters. Not lekker. Trash bags x Flares x Fireworks Fire extinguisher x Fire lanterns Comprehensive medical kit x Feathers Any required prescriptions (please note: x Glitter (even bio-degradeable, because our medics don’t dispense painkillers, others can’t tell whether it’s degradeable, headache tabs or antibiotics) and will assume all glitter’s OK, which results Light: a headlamp, torch, bike light, fairy in horrifically difficult clean-ups for Leave lights, EL wire (and spare batteries) No Trace Volunteers) - Solar lights rock – find ‘em & use ‘em. x Firearms 05 06 Your car will be checked at The roads are named in the gate for stowaways. If you alphabetical order radiating arrive with someone in your outwards from Binnekring. car who doesn’t have a ticket, These names change every it will be your responsibility year according to the theme of to transport that person back that year (except for Binnekring home, so make sure everyone Rd, Buitekring Rd, Lady Davina in your vehicle has a ticket. Boulevard, Stofadil Rd, Nansen This includes anyone you pick Street and the radials.) up along the way, and offer to transport into the event. RESPECT THE TANKWA This Tankwa is the habitat of the GET YOUR BEARINGS endangered Riverine Rabbit, the poisonous Thick-tailed Tankwa Town’s laid out in a Scorpion and lethal Puffadder… horseshoe shape, with two and Cape Cobra. Those signs projecting ‘horns’ at the top, that state ‘NO CAMPING and a long tail that stretches BEYOND THIS POINT’? They’re down 10-ish. The centre of this there to protect the Tankwa, horseshoe is the Binnekring, ON ARRIVAL and to protect you. and it’s where a lot of the art is placed. WEATHER AND CLIMATE The road that fronts this space Days can hit the high 40s, is called Binnekring Road, and nights can be freezing, there the streets that radiate off are spectacular storms and the Binnekring are numbered gale-force winds can cause like the hours on a clock, from whiteouts. 2-ish through to 10-ish. This Be prepared for extremes: way, once you’ve found your weather is unpredictable, camping spot for the event, and rain far away can cause you’ll have an address. For instant flash floods. In 2012, example, you could be living rapid flooding saw many tents at ‘Buitekring and 3:30-ish’. We and vehicles damaged. Avoid have signs and street lamps to natural selection - camp in the help you figure out where the designated area, or stand the hell you are. risk of your camp being washed away. Not so lekker. CLICK FOR 07 THE FORECAST 08 Volunteering at AfrikaBurn is superb fun.