Words: Loz Tanner

(Note: this article is from 2017 – please see our Tickets page for updated info & links)
Diversity in Tankwa Town is an oft-debated topic on our social media channels, at our HQ  in Cape Town, at Town Halls and also in the desert. Hell, it’s even at the core of one of our principles! As a community, we seem super aware that there are barriers to entry in this desert experiment of ours, but what are we doing about it?
Access has become one of the cornerstones of the Outreach portfolio over the last few years – as well as reaching out, we hope to grab onto those hands of the friends we haven’t met yet and pull them in, from all walks of life.
 

 
One instrument of redress is through Anathi (formerly ‘Community’) Tickets and Access Grants: applications are closing on 10 March – which is the end of next week already, which is why we’re making noise about it.
Anathi Tickets are discounted by 88% for marginalised artists, community cultural practitioners and would be participants who want to come and get involved in all this innovative dusty shit. That discount puts them at R180.
Access Grants are a two-pronged attack at leveling the playing field for those who do not have resources to get there and stay a while. Welfare is offered at a set rate per person to assist with food, water containers, first aid supplies and so on. A contribution towards transport is considered on a case-by-case basis and Burners departing from Cape Town can get a seat on an overland truck that comes with a (shared) tent and cooking equipment.
 

 
Requests for all three – Anathi Tickets, welfare and transport – can be uploaded once registered on the website. Up to 20 people can be loaded in on application form so get to it – and get others to get to it too.
Register on the website and log in here.
Once the application has been submitted – remember: the deadline is 10 March – it will be processed and adjudicated by the Outreach portfolio. All successful applicants will be notified and community tickets will then need to be purchased by 24 March in order for the welfare and transport support to be effected.
But radical inclusion doesn’t stop at access, it requires a whole (temporary) city to grow the agency of the voices, minds and hearts at the margins and it requires the stalwarts and deeply long-engaged to open their minds, hearts and ears. Do something and make it so.
Got any questions about applying? Contact [email protected]