Theme camps are designed and created with the intention of welcoming, engaging and entertaining other participants. Think of them as little spaces within the larger village of Tankwa Town. You’re collectively creating a spaceship open to all who want to participate, and generating a fabulous project to share with the community.
… a sunset margarita bar, an afternoon braai and ice-cream station, an epic party, a soulful sound experience, a massage centre, a chill space, offer comfort, a talk, a demonstration, lost mind insurance policies, a water fountain, a bakery, a dance class… what are you good at that others would enjoy, and that you’d like to share?
Your camp can be tiny, it can be enough for 2 or 3 guests at a time, or a dozen, or it could go full massive and be large enough to handle hundreds of people – no matter the size it’s all welcome, and we suggest you try and tackle a camp that suits your crew size, and your resources.
If you’re thinking about creating a theme camp, please read the following docs:
Theme camps are the pulsing heart of Tankwa Town. These criteria was worked out to enable everyone to have a clear parameter in which to operate. There is a summary at the end that can serve as a check list.
Theme camps should be:
If your camp is massive with many people, don’t expect to be placed in the tightest part of Tankwa Town. Binnekring frontage is under a lot of pressure, so of your camp has many people and only a small offering to the public, please don’t expect to be placed on a busy frontage like Binnekring Road or 10ish Boulevard.
Whilst we’ll do our best to provide your camp with a great spot, placement is always at the discretion of the Theme Camp committee.
YOUR TENT AND STRUCTURES:
EQUIPMENT AND APPLIANCES:
FIRST AID AND HYGIENE:
FIRE SAFETY:
EMERGENCY AND SAFETY:
All vehicles must be parked with their ‘nose’ to the street in case of emergency
GENERAL RESPONSIBILITY & ETIQUETTE:
If you encounter a vulnerable participant in your Theme Camp, please bring them to the Sanctuary, which is next door to the Medics or alert a Ranger
The Safety Officer will come past and ensure that this is all in order before signing off your Theme Camp.
Thinking about joining or collaborating with a theme camp? Head over to our Community Directory: it’s where all registered projects are able to indicate they’re open to new members or collaborators.
Although you don’t have to register your Theme Camp, it’s a really good idea, as registered camps get a specific spot allocated to them, in the right sound zone, and get included on the map in our WTF guide. This makes your camp easy to find and explains what you’re offering, and when.
Just a tip: only registered camps get frontage on the busiest roads of our city – and those spots fill up fast. In addition, there’s a criteria that’s important to bear in mind for those spaces, ie: they need to offer an interactive experience and at night must have some lighting so there are no ‘dead spots’ on the Binnekring.
If you’re planning an unregistered camp, you’d need to arrive earlier in the week to secure an available space. Don’t panic if you miss the registration deadline for inclusion in the WTF – you can still bring it to the event. It just won’t have a designated space on the Binnekring, and it won’t be on the map or in the guide. But it’ll be there, in Tankwa Town, and that’s the most important thing.
Plug & Play Camps? Paid Luxury Glamping? GTFO!
Over the years we’ve seen some camps being set up to make profit off others’ hard volunteer work and creativity – and our team has had to intervene. Occasionally, we’ve even had to ask some individuals that sought to profit off our event by running luxury private camps not to return. Because, as should be clear in terms of the principles that underscore everything about our event and culture, that’s not how we roll as a community. To find out what the comfort & discomfort zones are in this area, check out the info on our Plug, Play & Profit page.
To register a Theme Camp, you’d first need to create a Collective (which is a group for your project crew) on The Information Machine, and then register the Theme Camp under your Collective. Ready?
NOTE: Registrations for 2025 close on the 28th February.
Once upon a time, there was a funky little desert kumbaya that got real popular as it grew up. But as things got bigger, some folks just wanted to rock up & enjoy the fruits of other people’s labour of love. They were keen on the action, but just weren’t up for working for it, or getting down & dirty in the dust. So they sought out ways to pay for their comforts, and some people were keen to provide that comfort, for a tidy profit.
The End? Nope – because that’s not how Tankwa Town works.
With growth in popularity, the AfrikaBurn event has experienced a rise in the commodification of our culture in the form of people and organisations that have utilised the event to turn a profit. These camps and package tours have various names: ‘Turnkey camps’, ‘Plug and Play camps’, ‘Concierge camps’. For our purposes here, we refer to them as Plug, Play and Profit Camps.
Camps of this nature compromise the experience of actively participating in the creation of Tankwa Town, as well as the culture that it espouses which aspires to affect the world in a positive way. It results in people missing the fundamental point of the experience altogether and goes against the efforts of everyone else at AfrikaBurn that participate for the love of it – not the love of profit.
Radical Self-Reliance, Decommodification, Civic Responsibility, Gifting, Participation and Immediacy have been highlighted as the principles that stand the greatest chance of being compromised by Plug, Play and Profit camps. (see here for a detailed explanation of the guiding principles).
Through consultations over many years, our community has voiced the opinion that Plug, Play and Profit camps go against our 11 guiding principles and compromise the essence of the experience. And so our Theme Camp team have developed mechanisms to ensure that some basic rules of play are adhered to. The main mechanisms utilised are these:
What does that all mean? Read the Plug and Play Guidelines here.
To help you navigate the territory when it comes to camp plans, check out these handy flowcharts:
Click on either image to view a large & zoomable PDF version.
A easy to check reference guide is outlined below:
CAMPERS:
CAMP LEADS:
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