If you go on the Festival web site you will see photos of 4x4s on the tracks North of Tombouctou. From them you can form your own opinion as to whether you can make it. However to repeat a posting I made some time ago, when I went there were a number of Citroen 2cvs/Dyannes from the Citroen Club of Slovenia who'd made it so you should have no problem.
Security is another issue. For starters it's the only festival where stage security is left to the Army complete with AK47s! Mind you that didn't stop a guy who was all of a metre tall climbing on the stage! Secondly, crime is or certainly was virtually unknown amongst the Touaregs and they will vastly outnumber Western visitors. That said, one local guy was caught having stopped off the water supply from the Water tanker and then trying to sell it's water back to the locals. He was caught by the Army and I can tell you he won't be pulling that trick again! Frankly I think you'd be more likely to have problems leaving your bike back in town. We left all sorts in our (open) tents all day long and never had any problem. Mind you there was a youngish girl on the next dune who had her own Kalashnikov (which was almost as big as her) so maybe that's why we were fine. Honestly that's true!
Have a great time. I did.
Q
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