Dust storm causes some to leave Burning Man early
By MARTIN GRIFFITH, Associated Press Writer
Sun Aug 31, 9:34 AM ET
A dust storm chased away some participants from the counterculture Burning Man festival before its traditional climax Saturday night on the northern Nevada desert, authorities said.

Roger Farschon, incident commander for the federal Bureau of Land Management, said the dust storm on the Black Rock Desert about 110 miles north of Reno began early Saturday afternoon and continued into the evening.

"We are in (a) total whiteout," he wrote by e-mail. "A similar cold front caused a major dust event on Monday. The rest of the event has been relatively dust-free."

The annual celebration of radical self-expression was scheduled to climax Saturday night with the torching of its 40-foot signature effigy.

The crowd on Saturday morning reached a record 49,599, up from 47,097 last year, authorities reported.

Farschon said he was unaware of any fatalities or major arrests during the weeklong event leading up to Labor Day.

"Overall, the event is going smoothly with no major problems," he wrote. "Medical cases are very consistent with last year with daily patient loads of 0.5 to 0.7 percent of the population."

The BLM had made six arrests and issued 129 citations to participants through early Saturday morning, many for drug violations.

Burning Man, an eclectic art, music and performance festival, began in 1986 at San Francisco's Baker Beach and was moved to the Black Rock Desert in 1990.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080831/ap_en_ot/burning_man_festival

I LOVE the euphemistic BULLSHIT that the leftovers from the late 60s use to describe what they do...

"The Self-expression of the COUNTER-Culture...." i.e. The perversions and moral bankruptcy of the people who were 18-19 yrs old in 1967-68 is now given free reign and full indulgence in the desert every Labor Day weekend, except NOW these acid freaks are 57 years old and up so the all-nude love-ins they used to have now feature more and more CLOTHING.

Nothing more hideous than watching Wavy Gravy try to fuck Grace Slick....

The YOUNG people (Pot/ecstasy crowd ages 18 thru 28) who fancy themselves the subjects of Smash Mouth's "Walking on the Sun" ode, attend these flashback flashback flashbacks (i.e. BURNING MAN) with one thing in mind....to FUCK as much as possible in the desert while toasted on the chemical potpouri the OLDER crowd brings with them, to the middle of nowhere. It is actually a blessing, because instead of having to watch Wavy Gravy fuck Grace Slick, you can now watch a 20 year old hippie chick-wannabe that resembles Ziva David fucking ANY guy under age 30 she can get her sexually charged/frenzied hands on after dropping 3 hits of Ecstasy...

it is actually quite an impressively erotic, HOTT site, seeing a young late teens/early 20s hot chick who is totally charged up on "X" take 2 or 3 guys she considers attractive, taking them literally by the erect DICK and leading them to the spot she wants to fuck at/in (usually her tent or RV/trailer...admission is usually just some pot or a tablet of some controlled substance...or 20 bucks....but well worth it either way.

If the storm didn't kill any hippies, this is a non-story.

pic from tmz

I have never been or plan on attending burning man, being in the desert dirty with no shower is sooo unsanitary... I really hate hippies they creep me out...Has anyone ever been to Burning Man?...If so, Is it as dirty/unsanitary as i imagine it is??