This was six weeks of intense work and play out far in the Karoo desert in South Africa with a 75-person crew. This band of hippies and misfits push it from sunrise to sunset, six days a week, to build the infrastructure of Tankwa Town that is essential to Afrikaburn.

Whilst not the most creative or glamorous job, the lessons it taught me are invaluable. I spent three weeks preparing the site for the festival, mostly in the carpentry workshop, building and repairing 170 compost toilets and streetlights for the city grid.

After the festival was over, we were responsible for the “leave no trace” principle of the Burn, which meant walking the desert in lines, picking up cigarette butts and sparkly hippie droppings.

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I was also lucky enough to get the opportunity to help to build one of the main sculptures, “X-hale”. Having impressed the artist, Nix Davies, with my cladding and climbing skills, I have been asked to return this year to help her with Yggdrasil, the biggest sculpture AfrikaBurn has ever seen.

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