Jun 29, 2017

Burning Man will go on under Trump (probably)

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The Trump administration is set to soon green light a permit for Burning Man, a week-long festival of art (and much more) that takes place on federal land in the Nevada desert, according to a federal document posted Wednesday and an official at the Interior Department.

Why it matters: Rumors were floating around the Burning Man online community that President Trump may try to block the event, possibly because the participants tend to skew much more liberal than conservative (There are exceptions, of course, like tax guru Grover Norquist, who wrote a piece about his experience there a few years ago).

The details: The Bureau of Land Management, an Interior Department agency that oversees federally owned lands, posted on Wednesday an annual document with details about Burning Man's use of the desert. While that doesn't guarantee the BLM will issue the needed permit, spokespeople for both the event and the agency say one is expected soon. "We expect to issue the permit sometime after the 4th of July holiday weekend," said Mark Hall, a field manager in the local BLM office in Nevada.

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