BLM recommends 80K attendance cap at Burning Man

RENO — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is recommending attendance be capped at existing levels for the next 10 years at the annual Burning Man counter-culture festival in the desert 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Reno.

Burning Man organizers had proposed raising the current 80,000 limit as high as 100,000 in coming years.

But the BLM said in releasing the final environmental impact statement on Friday its preferred alternative for the proposed 10-year renewal of Burning Man’s special recreation would stick with the cap that’s been in place since 2017.

The agency said it would work with event organizers to address environmental and security concerns, but it’s not advocating at this time any of the changes proposed in the draft environmental impact statement, including a ban on Dumpsters, new security barriers or private security searches for weapons or drugs.