Reno, Nev. • Burning Man organizers say the U.S. government wants to place unreasonable conditions on a proposal to expand the counter-culture festival’s capacity to 100,000, including stepped-up security searches and new perimeter barriers that land managers say would reduce vulnerability to acts of terrorism.
Group leaders say the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed stipulations for a new 10-year special use permit would for the first time require certified building inspections, maintenance of a county road and air quality mitigation that could raise their costs by $10 million a year at the annual event in the desert 100 miles north of Reno.