RENO, Nev. (AP) — Organizers say whiteout dust conditions forced a three-hour stop of ticket-holder entries to the Burning Man counter-culture festival in the Nevada desert 100 miles north of Reno.
The Reno Gazette-Journal reports that gates reopened about 6:30 p.m. Sunday following swirling dust storms that reduced visibility and made driving dangerous.
Burning Man officials said the wait time for entry after gates reopened was about 10 hours.
The event is expected to draw 80,000 people to build a Black Rock Desert city from scratch for a week.
Whiteout conditions are common during the event, with desert dust stirred by thousands of arriving cars, RVs, trucks and buses.
Burning Man combines wilderness camping with avante-garde performance at a Mardi Gras-like celebration in an environment resembling the surface of the moon.