RENO, Nev. (AP) -- Authorities say the 2009 installment of the annual Burning Man festival in the northern drew a smaller crowd to the northern Nevada desert than in 2008.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials say that as of noon Saturday, some 41,059 people were at the festival. Officials say the crowd peaked at 43,435 at noon on Friday.

The numbers represent an 11 percent drop in attendance over 2008.

Burning Man is an annual, weeklong art, music and performance festival. It climaxes on Saturday night with the torching of a 40-foot signature effigy on the Black Rock Desert, about 110 miles north of Reno.

In an e-mail to The Associated Press Saturday night, BLM officials said the Pershing County Sheriff's office had made several drug-related arrests at the festival.