afrikaburn 2026

first flame ticket sale 22 october @12pm SAST

27 April to 3 May 2026

THROUGH THE PRISM

Art: Conduit II, Time To, Scratch, Twisted Davinci, Triple Bypass, Fossil Clan, Sudara, Palm to Soul, Loki, Benchmark
Photos: Richard Ahlstrom, Kim Steinberg, Jonx Pillemer, Reza Assar

Art (from Left to Right): Scratch by Nathan Victor Honey, The Soft Mother by Neil Car, Ubuhlanti Stage by Thulani Headman, LuminEssence by Carmel Ives

2026 Ticketing Timeline

Photo: Jonx Pillemer

AFRIKABURN 2026 tickets:​

Ticketing to AfrikaBurn is different to other events, because AfrikaBurn is unlike other events that you’ve been to. AfrikaBurn is designed to challenge you and take you out of your comfort zone, while being surrounded by boundless creativity and participants who co‑create, collaborate, and inspire at every turn. It’s not something you can understand if you’ve not been before, and if you’ve been, you already know.

When we ‘sell’ tickets, we try to do it consciously. Not to the highest or lowest bidder, but to the person who’s going to be part of the event, participate deeply and not sit back and be a spectator. AfrikaBurn tickets are limited (to about 10,000 people), so if you want to come and burn with us next year, you’ll need to maak ‘n plan now, and jump through several flaming hoops to do so.

As we are both a functional town, and an event, held in a remote location, we ask everyone to give us a bit more information than their credit card numbers when applying for AfrikaBurn tickets. We want to know how we can make your AfrikaBurn super-awesome, and we also need to know if you have any allergies, etc., just in case you have an unexpected visit to our medic tents. 

Taking the time to apply properly and give us proper information makes a huge difference when our team is trying to find you in the suburbs of Tankwa Town because your cat has just had kittens or your tiramisu has been delivered to the gate. It also ensures that you know what you’re getting into well before you hit the R355 and drive all the way to Tankwa Town without any sunscreen.

Getting a ticket to AfrikaBurn involves five simple stages:

  1. Register a user account on our ticketing partner Quicket (if you don’t already have one)
  2. Click ‘PRE-REGISTER’ above (or below) and click the ‘TICKETS’ button on the Quicket page to then be able to register and fill in all the necessary information to save doing this when the ticket sales go live.
  3. Wait patiently for the ticket sales at the end of October
  4. Visit the AfrikaBurn event Quicket page when the ticket sales go live and purchase your tickets
  5. Receive your ticket via email, which you can then print and bring to the gate

Tickets Available:

First Flame
ticket sale

The First Flame ticket sale is on Wednesday, 22 October at 12pm SAST. This is the ‘pricey’ ticket sale for those of you who want to get first access to 2026 tickets. This sale lasts a week and will only feature AfrikaBurn Blue Sky and New Horizon tickets.

Art: time to, by elparo
Photo: Richard Ahlstrom

Second Strike Ticket Sale

If you want a lower priced ticket, you’ll need to wait until the Second Strike ticket sale on 29 October at 12pm SAST, at which point all the available AfrikaBurn tickets will go on general sale until they’re sold out. As with previous years, we do expect tickets to sell out quickly, so please make sure you’re online at 12pm sharp to avoid any disappointment.

Art: Palm To Soul, by Jacques Mollentze
Photo: Richard Ahlstrom

afrikaburn ground up Ticket

6200 Tickets @ R3099 (€150ish or U$180ish)

This ticket is priced at the amount it costs to build Tankwa Town and have you participate in the AfrikaBurn experiment.

Art: Fossil Clan, by Fossil Clan Crew
Photo: Jacques Grobler

AfrikaBurn New Horizon Ticket

2000 tickets @ R4999 (€245ish or U$290ish)

This ticket is exactly the same as the AfrikaBurn Ground Up Ticket, but has an additional donation of R1900 that goes towards our year-round operations and activities that incubate That Thing We Do In The Desert, as well as seeding arts and social development initiatives.

Art: Twisted Davinci by Die Brandnetels
Photo: Steven Morrow

AfrikaBurn Blue Sky Ticket

300 tickets @ R7199 (€350ish or U$415ish)

This ticket is identical to the AfrikaBurn Ground Up Ticket, but includes a super bonus donation of R4,100, which helps generate a subsidy for those accessing AfrikaBurn through the lower-income tickets.

Art: Sudara by T. McKay & C. Cartwright
Photo: Kim Steinberg

You may be asking why we have three different ticket types when they’re all exactly the same underneath? Well … ever since a ragtag bunch of people got together and started AfrikaBurn, we’ve always had our sights on positively impacting the default world. New Horizon and Blue Sky tickets are part of a wider giving programme that has propelled “burner” culture through civic arts and creative community. Have a read of this, or this if you are able, and called to support.

Looking at this year’s Burning Man tickets, the majority of them were sold at $750. Twenty years ago, they were $200 … Everyone who’s been to the Gerlach Regional says that AfrikaBurn is a bit like Burning Man twenty years ago, and our 2026 tickets are still cheaper than a Burning Man ticket was in 2006!  You always wanted to time-travel, right?

Other Tickets Available:

There are a few other ticket types available if you match the criteria … if you identify as part of a historically excluded or economically disadvantaged group, and are living in an African country, you could qualify to be a part of the Anathi programme. If you’re living off a very low income and can prove it with your bank statements, you can apply for a subsidised ticket. If you want to apply for the Anathi programme or a subsidised ticket, you’ll need to fill in a form and upload proof of income (or lack of!) to be able to complete your application. These tickets are only available within a specific timeframe, so please apply between 10 October and 27 November.

Kids and Minors need to be attached to a fully grown and responsible adult ticket. If you plan to bring your children to AfrikaBurn, you’ll need to indicate this when purchasing your ticket by clicking this option before checking out. You’ll then need to fill in this form and print and bring it with you to the gate, where your little bundles of joy will be issued with special wristbands. 

Minors’ tickets (aged 14 to 17 at the time of the Burn) will also need to be linked to a ticket issued to someone who’s over the age of 28 and prepared to accept the responsibility of a developing teenage brain let loose in Tankwa Town. Like kids’ tickets, you’ll be able to add your minors’ tickets to your basket and purchase them when you check out on Quicket. 

If you’re a Silver Burner (over the age of 70) and you’re technologically savvy enough to navigate this website, then you can apply for a free pensioner ticket from 10 October for as long as they’re available by emailing a copy of your ID to tickets@afrikaburn.com. There are only 100 free pensioner tickets, and once they’ve all been claimed, you’ll have to ask your grandchildren to get you a ticket through the general sale instead.

afrikaburn Anathi programme

250 tickets @ R299

If you identify as part of a historically excluded or economically disadvantaged group, and are living in an African country, you can apply for the Anathi programme by clicking the link below.

Photo: Mike Murray

afrikaburn Subsidised Tickets

100 tickets @ R999

If you’re living off a very low income and can prove it with your bank statements, you can apply for a subsidised ticket to AfrikaBurn by clicking the link below.

Photo: Kim van Zyl

Sitting at AfrikaBurn

AfrikaBurn Pensioner tickets

100 tickets, Free

You can apply for a free pensioner ticket by emailing a copy of your ID, which proves you're over 70 (on 27 April 2026), to tickets@afrikaburn.com by clicking the button below.

Art: Time To by Elparo
Photo: Mike Murray

Kids at AfrikaBurn

afrikaburn

Kids Tickets

Unlimited, Free

Kids tickets can be added to your basket on checkout. You'll need to fill in a parent consent form too.

Photo: Jonx Pillemer

AfrikaBurn Minors tickets

Same availability as all other tickets

Linked to an adult ticket over the age of 28, and can be added to your basket when you check out.

Photo: Kim van Zyl

afrikaburn Direct Distribution Tickets

1400 tickets @R3099

These tickets are offered to participants via registered creative projects.

Photo: Jonx Pillemer

DDTs

A small number of Direct Distribution tickets (DDT) are offered to participants via registered creative projects – like artworks, mutants, theme camps, etc. These tickets are extremely limited and are allocated as they are requested via each creative portfolio. DDTs are priced the same as the AfrikaBurn Ground Up tickets, so we recommend that even if you’re a part of a project, you try to get your tickets through the regular ticket sales, instead of waiting for a DDT that you might not be able to access because they’ve all gone. If you’re unsure, please chat to your project lead, who will be in contact with our portfolio leads. 

E-Tolls

Before the final checkout at Quicket, you’ll be offered the opportunity to add an E-Toll vehicle pass into your basket. You may or may not know how you’re going to get to AfrikaBurn, so don’t worry if you don’t want to buy a vehicle pass at this time; you can buy them at the gate when you arrive at the event.

Take out the sting

This year, we’re offering you a payment spreading option when you check out. This will allow you to spread the payments of your AfrikaBurn ticket over a few months, helping those of us who don’t make a fortune to still get a ticket. You’ll need to click on the Payflex option when you check out on Quicket to make use of this feature.

AFRIKABURN 2025 tickets:​

Click the tabs below to see all the different ticket types

The Guiding Principles of AFRIKABURN:

AfrikaBurn is a Burning Man regional event, and our guiding principles are based on the Ten Principles of Burning Man, to which we added an 11th in 2011 – Each One Teach One – that encourages knowledge sharing.

These principles aren’t commandments, and they’re not rules – they’re ideals that offer guidelines for how we as a community can reinvent the world and ourselves. We re-invented the principle of ‘Radical Inclusion’ to be more representative in South Africa.

Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey wrote the Ten Principles as guidelines for the newly-formed Regional Network in 2004. They were crafted not as a dictate of how people should be and act but as a reflection of the community’s ethos and culture as it had organically developed since the event’s inception.

The Man in the Hat – a tribute to Larry by the AfrikaBurn Art Committee

AFRIKABURN: The event

In 1986, someone named Larry Harvey and his mate Jerry James set fire to a wooden figure on a beach in San Francisco … and many years later, here we are in South Africa with AfrikaBurn, one of the largest regional Burning Man events outside of the USA.

AfrikaBurn takes place at Quaggafontein in the Tankwa Karoo, in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The event is a blank canvas on which participants project any creative endeavour they desire to create, ranging from large-scale burning sculptures to small performances and any kind of service that participants see fit to give or ‘gift’ to the community. The spectacular result is the manifestation of a weeklong interdisciplinary cultural event that includes art, costume, performance, Theme Camps, music, Mutant Vehicles, and so much more.

AfrikaBurn is a chance to ‘invent the world anew’ and gift its participants a space for creative expression, play and to be radically inclusive and accessible. The touchstone of value in our culture will always be immediacy: experience before theory, moral relationships before politics, survival before services, roles before jobs, ritual before symbolism, work before vested interest, and participant support before sponsorship

 Art: The Soft Mother by Neil Car

A warning about getting scammed

In previous years, ticket touts and scammers have taken advantage of people desparately looking for tickets. We discovered a number of scammers had been buying Vehicle Passes and selling them online as e-tickets via dodgy resale sites like Viagogo and GameDay etc. It was heartbreaking for us to tell people that their tickets were not valid for entry to the event.

After the tickets to AfrikaBurn have sold out, there are also A LOT of people who post online that they suddenly can’t attend AfrikaBurn and have tickets to sell. Most of these people turn out to be scammers because all our resales happen on Quicket, not Facebook.

Please think and look carefully before buying your tickets to AfrikaBurn. Please don’t buy or resell AfrikaBurn tickets on any platform other than the official Quicket one, where the transaction is secure, the original barcode is cancelled, and a new barcode is generated to ensure that no two people can check in with the same ticket. Some very professional scammers are out there trying to steal your hard-earned money.

NB: If someone selling a ticket on Facebook refuses to use the private resale function on Quicket, you can be 100% sure it’s a scam.

The private resale function on Quicket will be available once tickets go on sale. The public resale function on Quicket will only be available once the General Sale has closed or the event has sold out. For more information on how the resale function works – please click here.

Art: Drew Ross Prometheus - roving artwork,
Sean Marais Genesis Bloom - The Clan

Refunds:

Due to the hard work and year-round costs it takes to make AfrikaBurn happen, AfrikaBurn has always had a ‘no refund’ policy on tickets. This year, that policy remains the same, even in the event of a cancellation due to a government imposed Stofadilpox lockdown or any other reason.

INSURANCE:

We acknowledge that the ticket price constitutes only part of the total costs of attending AfrikaBurn. As such, please consider taking out personal insurance suited to your needs. Suitable insurance is particularly important for those travelling from overseas to attend AfrikaBurn.

It is your prerogative to obtain your own insurance coverage to protect yourself if you are unable to attend AfrikaBurn.

We do not recommend and therefore do not offer an opt-in insurance policy at the point of sale.

Accessibility

We aim to ensure that AfrikaBurn is fully accessible to anyone who wants to attend. As an outdoor event in a desert environment, some areas at Quaggafontein are harder to access, especially in challenging weather – but we will do our utmost to help all participants access as much of AfrikaBurn as possible.

  • Registered disabled participants can apply for a CareBear ticket (via illumanathi@afrikaburn.com for their carer if required to enable them to participate.
  • Accessible toilets can be provided to specific attendees. These are exclusively for those with disabilities.

Please contact​ illumanathi@afrikaburn.com to discuss the accessibility options once you have confirmed your ticket.

Frequently asked questions:

AFRIKABURN 2026 entry policy:

The Gate Crew will check your photo ID against your ticket details in the system. ID/passport or driver’s licences will be accepted, so please ensure that the ID/passport number is correct on the ticket of every person travelling with you. When purchasing your tickets, please ensure you have the right emergency contact details for someone off and onsite at AfrikaBurn, as the Box Office Crew link your uniquely numbered wristband to your details in the system. Your wristband is there to assist the team in case of an emergency.

The vehicle you are travelling in will need an E-Toll disk. These disks will be available to purchase at the gate until the event gates close.

For the Best Gate Experience™ – come prepared! Print your ticket out, or make sure your smart device has enough battery! Gate can be pretty unforgiving, especially when there are hundreds of other, better prepared, more organised and less frustrated folk clamouring to get in. Again, make sure the details on your ID/passport match the details on your ticket. If they don’t, please check the edit details & transfer ticket information in the Ticketing FAQ’s.

Please take note of the AFRIKABURN 2026 gate opening & closing times:

Monday 27 April: 09:00 – Midnight
Tuesday 28 April: 09:00 – Midnight
Wednesday 29 April: 09:00 – Midnight
Thursday 30 April: 09:00 – Midnight
Friday 1 May: 09:00 – 19:00

GATE ENTRY CLOSED, EXIT ONLY from 19:00 FRIDAY until SUNDAY. 

Quaggafontein, Tankwa Karoo, South Africa

All the incredible images on this page were taken by Grace Cotezee, Kim Steinberg, Kyle Kingsley, Reza Assar, Richard Ahlstrom, Sean Furlong, Mia Dyason, Hennie Nieman, Jonx Pillemer, Simon O’Callaghan, Greg Hillyard, Gabriela Slegrova, Richard Ahlsrom, Jacques Grobler, Gautier Berr, Daniel De Lapelin Dumont and Alex Miles.  All the bad images were taken by the Brain, and if anyone is uncredited it’s his fault too. 

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