JERUSALEM (JTA) — Beersheba police must allow the Israeli version of the Burning Man festival to take place, an Israeli court ruled.
The Beersheba Magistrate’s Court on Monday ordered police to provide a permit for Midburn, as the event in the Negev Desert is known, but laid out rules about indecent exposure. Police and festival organizers had been haggling over the permit for four months, according to reports.
Some 6,500 people are expected to attend Midburn, which is scheduled to take place May 20-24 in southern Israel.
The court ordered the festival to adhere to a number of police demands, including that nudity be allowed only in closed-off areas where minors are not permitted and closed-circuit TV cameras may not film inside tents and private areas, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Modeled after the annual weeklong event held in Black Rock Desert, Nevada, the festival sets up a temporary city “creating a platform which will allow a communal life style, creativity, art and radical self-expression,” according to the Midburn website.
On Sunday, the Beersheba court imposed a stop work order on the festival at the request of police, bringing to a halt work on more than 70 art installations and dozens of theme camps, according to the Times of Israel.
This will be the second Midburn event following two years of smaller-scale, unofficial events.
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