AfrikaBurn boss flames miscreants in post-festival letter

The flames have died but some of the 13‚000 people who attended this year’s AfrikaBurn festival are still feeling the heat of the organisers’ wrath.

Festival director Travis Lyle took aim on Thursday at a “burner” who collided with a farmworker’s vehicle while “overtaking on a blind rise‚ in the dust” while leaving the Tankwa Karoo.

Tinarwo Chakurira was killed in the crash‚ and his passenger‚ Ainord Mwanakwayae‚ was injured. “Even though (they) were not part of our event‚ their lives have been irreparably changed by it‚” Lyle said in a letter to festivalgoers.

• Magnificent art installations snap, crackle & pop at AfrikaBurn's disco inferno"Afrikaburn is not a music festival," said first-time "burner" Angie Blackbeard, climbing up the side of a Bakgattie - the rusted shell of a vintage car - to pose for a picture with the Tankwa Karoo desert dust swirling around her. 

“We are working to support (Chakurira’s) family in every way possible."

Lyle also criticised “plug and play” operators who provided luxury camps “at a price” for well-heeled festivalgoers‚ even though AfrikaBurn is a “non-commodified space” where money does not change hands.

“That is unacceptable‚” he said. “Our team is forensically analysing the ways it happened‚ and how we can make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Lyle said norovirus was to blame for an outbreak of gastroenteritis that affected hundreds of festivalgoers.

“It appears that it was spread by poor personal hygiene and shared sanitation and kitchen facilities‚” he said.

• Snaps: Jeannie D at AfrikaBurnAfternoon Express host Jeannie D has been showing us her fun side after posting pictures of herself dressed up at the annual AfrikaBurn event. 

“Many people were not affected‚ and it would be reasonable to assume that these folks were diligent in washing their hands regularly and making use of hand sanitiser.”

Lyle said there were 150 pit toilets and 136 portaloos at the festival‚ twice the number the law required.

Catherine Williams‚ head of medical services at AfrikaBurn‚ said norovirus was characterised by “a high number of exposed people becoming infected‚ a high frequency of vomiting and a short duration of illness”.

- TMG Digital/TimesLIVE