Authorities report rise in Burning Man attendance

RENO (AP) - Authorities say more than 50,000 people were at the annual Burning Man festival in the northern Nevada desert.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Lisa Ross says that as of noon Saturday, 50,504 people were attending the art, music and performance festival.

That's roughly 25 percent more than the 41,059 people reported last year at the festival on the Black Rock Desert, about 110 miles north of Reno.

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

Ross says she knew of no arrests, although festival officials have referred several people to the Pershing County Sheriff's office.