CARSON CITY, Nev. (CN) - Buoyed by a disapproving judge, county officials are trying to run the Burning Man festival out of town by doubling permit fees, its organizer claims in Federal Court.
Though this year's event, which runs Aug. 27 to Sept. 3, will not be affected, the 2013 festival is in jeopardy after Pershing County allegedly hiked the fees from $154,000 in 2011 to $448,000 this year.
"Defendants have acted not out of a neutral and objective concern for public safety issues, but because of their opposition to what they consider to be the content and culture of Burning Man, in violation of the First Amendment," the lawsuit states.
Black Rock City has held Burning Man event in the Black Rock Desert of Pershing County, Nev., since 1991. According to its website, the experimental arts event - which runs on a "free market" system and bans advertising - draws more than 50,000 people each year.
One of the festival's "primary purposes is to encourage communication and individual expression through art and other media, all directed towards exploring a common theme," according to the complaint.
Because the event is held on federal land, Black Rock City has paid the Bureau of Land Management for services ranging from security to emergency response since 1995. In 2006, the bureau switched from a flat-fee format to a cost-recovery system. The switch also required Black Rock City to contract directly with state and local government agencies for local services, including law enforcement. From 2006 to 2011, Black Rock entered into such agreements with the Pershing County Sheriff's Office.
Black Rock City says its payments have steadily risen from $66,000 in 2006 to $154,000 in 2011, but actual law enforcement expenses were only $120,000.
The organizer also made annual payments to Pershing and its nonprofits since 2005 as part of an agreement to avoid litigation over whether federal law pre-empts application of the local festival law against Burning Man. Since 2005, Black Rock City has allegedly paid Pershing and its nonprofits $395,600 under these agreements.
But the arrangement came under fire in November 2011 when Defendant District Attorney James Shirley advised Black Rock City that Judge Richard Wagner of the Nevada's Sixth District Court had asked him to amend the festival law in a way that would "severely restrict the content of the Burning Man event," according to the complaint.
"Specifically, the proposal would have imposed hundreds of thousands of dollars of new fees on BRC, subjected Burning Man to local law enforcement inconsistent with the terms of the BLM permit, and otherwise make the conduct of the Burning Man event contingent upon and subject to county and state laws and polices that could conflict, and in fact did conflict, with the terms of the 2012 BLM permit.
"This was not Judge Wagner's first effort to drive the Burning Man Event out of Pershing County," the lawsuit states, noting that two different commissioners have said Wagner opposed the "expressive activities occurring at the event, and was pressuring them to void the 2005 and 2011 agreements and, through the imposition of huge fees and heavy regulation, effect the content of the Burning Man event and cause BRC to seek to relocate the Burning Man event out of Pershing County."
Wagner, who is not a party to this action, allegedly supported the festival law amendment at a November 2011 public hearing, "commenting that Burning Man 'purveys titillation.'"