OBSERVATORY FESTIVAL
AfrikaBurn desert creativity heads to Cape Town's streets
Streetopia is a community-based and family event in Observatory, Cape Town, founded by the AfrikaBurn festival team in 2015 to fill the creative vacuum left by the demise of the long-running Obsfest. AfrikaBurn is the second-largest regional Burning Man event in the world. It attracted 14,000 "burners" to the 11th edition in April. "In essence, Streetopia is bringing the principles that guide the AfrikaBurn event to town, transporting what we do in the desert back into the ‘default world’ as it were and seeing what happens," says co-founder Monique Schiess. Burning Man is a leading "transformational festival", with regional events all over the world. The principles arose out of the Bohemian climate of challenging norms and seeking experiences exemplified by Burning Man founder Larry Harvey and the "Cacophony Society" in San Francisco in 1986. "In San Francisco during the hippy movement, the symbol of wearing the flower in the hair is that you have to go and find others like you. Wit...
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