Every year we ask, and every year you gift the most wonderful and moerse-long essays and heartfelt, feedback. Thank you for caring enough to write it all down.

The good news: AfrikaBurn is not completely broken. We keep experimenting and reinventing, but nothing in this year’s feedback strays too far from what you’ve told us before … we’re still a diverse bunch of weirdos who hold the 11 Principles close. Almost everyone who came to Through The Prism had a great time, even though it was hard in places too, which is exactly why we gather in the middle of a desert, not in the centre of Cape Town.

South African Burners remain the heartbeat of this movement, and after years of declining volunteer numbers, that trend has started to turn around, largely thanks to foreign participants looking for a meaningful way to take part in gifting while avoiding last-minute plastic trinkets. The “weekend warrior” story is still doing the rounds, but the gate data tells a different one. A couple of quick corrections too: there weren’t nearly as many Russian participants this year as some assumed, and taking part in AfrikaBurn is still not cheap … costing over R13,300 on average, before buying any camping gear or a ticket. Here’s what you told us.