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A Year Later, ‘Storm Area 51’ Still Affects Nevada Town

October 2, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Christopher Lawrence September 18, 2020 (reviewjournal.com)

• September 20th marked the first anniversary of the ‘Storm Area 51’ Facebook event when over two million people responded to a college student’s ‘late-night goof’, and pledged to storm Area 51 to “see them aliens.” Leading up to the event, the world was obsessed with how many people would descend on a tiny town called Rachel, Nevada – 50 miles from anywhere – and what they’d do when they got there.

• The event was thrown into disarray just days before when the young man who coined the phrase “Storm Area 51” severed ties with it. Plans to “storm” the nearby gate at the secretive military facility morphed into a music and arts festival dubbed ‘Alienstock’ for the 2000 or so people who were curious enough to show up.

• As the proprietor of the only business in Rachel, Connie West and her Little A’Le’Inn restaurant and hotel were thrust into the international spotlight. “I’m still not unwound from it,” West says of that wild summer that found media from around the world wandering into her small cafe, “because I have to deal with the aftermath of it every day.” “In this last year (with COVID), we’ve been hit so hard, we’re barely treading water.”

• As a result of this random Facebook meme, Lincoln County, Nevada is out $200,000; two small-business owners lost a combined $250,000; litigation involving the meme’s creator is pending; and Rachel has become divided, with many of its residents no longer speaking to one another. “I’ve known these people for a long, long time,” said West. “Alienstock made me see some ugly in people that I never thought were that deep and ugly, right here in my community.” West estimates the event cost her $200,000, and that tab keeps climbing because of the legal bills. She’s due in court again in late February.

• None of that deterred West from attempting to host another festival in 2020, which was canceled due to the pandemic. “I put a hell of a lot of work into it,” said West. “I had some awesome sponsors.” Those sponsors seem willing to work with her again when it is deemed safe, in 2021 or 2022. “All year, people have reached out to me,” West says. “They want this to happen again.”

• Rachel resident Joerg Arnu says that “The event… deeply divided our town into two camps.” One group backs West and her plans. Arnu leads the other group who wishes that West would just throw in the towel. “There’s a lot of animosity all of a sudden,” says Arnu. “Rachel was a very friendly town, where everybody knew everybody, everybody greeted everybody, waved at everybody. Now it’s come down to the exact opposite. Nobody even wants to talk to anyone anymore.”

• Since the Alienstock festival, Arnu says he’s been harassed, had strangers trespass on his property and has been photographed inside his home via long lenses. He complains of tourists driving through the residential areas of Rachel, and he has reinstalled the security lighting he bought last summer. “Our town that was a very peaceful and quiet place, and friendly place, has changed. I don’t know if it will ever mend, if it will ever go back to how it was,” says Arnu. “I will fight another Alienstock with everything I have.”

• Aside from the town of Rachel, the ‘Area 51 Basecamp’ at the Alien Research Center in Hiko, Nevada also had grand ambitions. British DJ Paul Oakenfold was so excited about the event that he flew from England on his private jet to perform for free on opening night at the center. But so few festival-goers showed up, plans were scrapped and tickets were refunded.

• “I don’t think we have anything to be embarrassed about,” says George Harris, the owner of the Alien Research Center. “And, by the way, I lost a lot of money, because I really thought there was going to be about 25,000 or 30,000 people, so we prepared for a lot.” Instead, 8,500 people stopped by over the course of a couple of days. That discrepancy cost him $42,000, and Harris says it will take him four or five years to pay off the bank loan. But the Alien Research Center was busier than normal for the next several weeks, and Harris says visitors still can’t get enough of his “I Stormed Area 51” merchandise. Like West, he plans to do it again.

• Eric Holt had been Lincoln County’s emergency manager for 18 months when calls started pouring in about ‘Storm Area 51’. A predicted number of 100,000 people coming to Lincoln County was a logistical nightmare in a rugged environment with almost no infrastructure. “We spent a month and a half straight just dedicating all of our resources to planning efforts for this,” Holt recalls. Even the 6,000 people who showed up for the event was “still kind of unheard of for up here” where there are only about fifty permanent residents. Holt says the county’s final costs for that weekend topped $200,000, and that was only because several other agencies offered their services at no charge. “[I]t would have been over $1 million easy.” Holt says that, between the event and the pandemic, it could take years for the full economic impact to be felt. Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak has indicated that help from Carson City isn’t likely.

• The idea to storm Area 51 at 3 a.m. Sept. 20 was born out of late-night boredom as the 20 year old college student Matty Roberts played World of Warcraft while scrolling through Facebook and watching self-proclaimed Area 51 whistleblower Bob Lazar on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Then he watched as the Facebook challenge went viral all over the world. “I was just like, ‘Oh man, the FBI’s going to show up.’ And they did. And I’m pretty sure I’m still on a watchlist.”

• Now, a year later Roberts lives in Bakersfield, California working in a vape shop, waiting for his ‘in person’ college classes to resume, and hoping one day to become an electrician. “It almost feels kind of like a wild fever dream in a way,’ says Roberts. “But I lived that. And that’s kind of bonkers to me. That’s a story not a whole lot of people can tell. I kind of wanna write a book.”

• After he pulled out of the Rachel event, Roberts ended up hosting a party September 19th at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, which served as a launch for Bud Light’s limited-edition Area 51-themed beer. Similar parties were planned in Vegas for this summer, including escape rooms and obstacle courses, and a tour of the East Coast. But COVID-19 stopped all of it in its tracks. “I’ve had quite a few people that kind of mentioned that they thought I made millions from this thing,” says Roberts. But in reality, he only sold a few t-shirts.

• Roberts’ legal rights to the term ‘Alienstock’ are part of the legal dispute with Connie West. But would he do the whole thing again some day? “Absolutely. I mean, if we can, I would love to,” Roberts says. “I think whenever it is, and if it is safe to gather again, I’d really like to kind of just keep pursuing the dream.”

It seems closer to a generation ago than 12 measly months.

Long before the 2020-ness of life began pulverizing us on a daily basis — back when the biggest thing many of us were concerned about was whether we’d ever get our hands on one of those Popeyes chicken sandwiches — the world was obsessed with how many people would descend on a tiny blip on the Nevada map, 50 miles from anywhere, called Rachel and what they might do when they got there.

Sunday marks the first anniversary of the day on which more than 2 million Facebook users, responding to a college student’s late-night goof, had pledged to storm Area 51 to “see them aliens.”

As a result of that random joke, Lincoln County is out $200,000, two small-business owners lost a combined

$250,000, litigation is pending and Rachel has become divided, with many of its residents — all of whom could safely gather without violating the state’s 50-person coronavirus guidelines — no longer speaking to one another.

‘I’m still not unwound’

“In this last year, we’ve been hit so hard, we’re barely treading water,” Connie West says.

As the proprietor of the only business in Rachel, the nearest thing

resembling a town to Area 51, she and her Little A’Le’Inn were thrust into the international spotlight in July 2019 as that Facebook prank went viral.

Plans to breach the nearby gate of the secretive military facility morphed into an ambitious music and

arts festival dubbed Alienstock. The event was thrown into disarray days before, on Sept. 9, when the man who coined the phrase “Storm Area 51” severed ties with it. The resulting four-day festival, put together at the last minute, offered the couple of thousand people curious enough to attend more of a DIY vibe.

“I’m still not unwound from it,” West says of that wild summer that found media from around the world wandering into her small cafe, “because I have to deal with the aftermath of it every day.”

That aftermath includes a lawsuit and countersuit involving the meme’s creator and his team, as well as the wrath of some members of her once-close-knit group of neighbors who remain angry with the way things played out.

“I’ve known these people for a long, long time. … Alienstock made me see some ugly in people that I never thought were that deep and ugly, right here in my community.”

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How Military Base Area 51 Became the Heartland of Alien Conspiracy Theories

September 16, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Jayden Collins September 4, 2020 (happymag.tv)

• A secret military base sits in the middle of the Nevada desert, about 82 miles northwest of Las Vegas known as ‘Area 51’. It has become the subject of endless pop culture references and memes, as well as the epicentre of the world’s most famous alien conspiracies. How did this Air Force facility become linked with extraterrestrial folklore, and are they really holding tea parties with alien lifeforms inside the base?

• The government used the desolate Nevada desert region as a weapons test range during World War II. In 1954 it was commissioned Area 51 by President Eisenhower as an Air Force base that tested spy planes, such as the U-2, far away from the public and Soviet spies. Perhaps today’s conspiracy theories are rooted in the base’s history of Soviet espionage.

• In 1947, there were reports of a weather balloon crashing on a ranch in southeastern New Mexico near a town called Roswell. But rumors abounded that the US military had taken a crashed UFO craft to Area 51. Then in the late 1980s, Robert Lazar came forward to claim that he had been one of the scientists reverse engineering alien spacecraft at Area 51. Lazar even claimed to have seen an alien himself. Lazar became a cult hero among conspiracy theorists, and while his credentials were pretty quickly discredited, it was his interview that would forever link Area 51 to the unknowns of outer space.

• The phenomena of Area 51 grew in the ’80s and ’90s, and took on a life of its own within popular culture. The science fiction television series The X-Files continually referenced the facility and the government’s agenda to keep the existence of extraterrestrial life a secret. In 1996, Area 51 was prominently feature in the film Independence Day, about an alien attack on Earth. In 2011, the comedy Paul depicted an extraterrestrial who has escaped from Area 51. The secret base was even referenced in the kids’ movie Lilo & Stitch, with the aliens in the film choosing to name planet Earth, Area 51. Barack Obama was the first US President to publicly acknowledge Area 51 in 2013.

• In June 2019, 20-year-old student Matty Roberts created a Facebook event called ‘Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All Of Us’. The event was set for September 20, 2019, and quickly turned into a trending meme, with 2 million people clicking ‘going’, and 1.5 million clicking ‘interested’. What was initially intended as a joke turned into a serious issue for the US government. The military’s public relation office made a Twitter post with a photo of military personnel and a B-2 stealth bomber. The caption read: “The last thing #Millenials will see if they attempt the #area51raid today.” The tweet was later deleted. However, only 1,500 people showed up to the hastily assembled music festivals, while only 150 people ventured to the gates of Area 51.

• So, what is really going on at Area 51? Apart from the creation of U-2 and A-12 aircraft and an early spy mission, we don’t officially know. However, according to Annie Jacobsen, author of the book Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base, it’s a whole lot of reverse-engineering – and not just of alien craft. Foreign technology captured on battlefields is often brought back to the facility to be tested and re-created. Jacobsen believes that Area 51 is still the location used by military intelligence to create counterterrorism tactics, weapon systems, and surveillance platforms, all of which are hidden from the public.

• Yet in July of this year, the Pentagon released three videos of UFO-like objects moving quickly through the air. They were accompanied by a report which stated the objects were “off-world vehicles not made of this world.” Since then, the Pentagon has set up a UFO task force in an attempt to discover the nature and origins of these objects, further fueling the fire of UFO-related suspicions surrounding Area 51.

Located 134km northwest of Las Vegas is a dirt road leading out from Nevada’s ‘Extraterrestrial Highway’ and down towards Homey Airport, the home of a notorious US military base.

What lies within this military base is mostly a mystery to the public. It goes by various names including Paradise Ranch, Red Square, Nevada Test and Training Range, and of course, the one most commonly used in myth and legend, Area 51.

This secret base sits in the middle of the Nevada desert and has become the subject of endless pop culture references and memes, as well as the epicentre of the world’s most famous alien conspiracies.

But just how did this air force facility become linked with extraterrestrial folklore, and are the United States really holding tea parties with alien lifeforms inside this bewitching base?

A Soviet spy station

Commissioned in 1954 by President Eisenhower, Area 51 was created in order to test spy planes far away from the public eye, with the ultimate goal of infiltrating the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons program.

The area within the Nevada Test and Training Range was already used for nuclear weapon testing back in World War II, and as such, it was the perfect location to ensure the public would keep their distance. What came out of the espionage work done at Area 51 would ultimately be significant in maintaining the United States’ superpower status.

First up was the commissioning of the U-2 spy plane, an aircraft that could fly as high as 70,000 feet in the air (an unfathomable feat at the time), travel across the US without needing to refuel, and carry cameras that could spy on Soviet land below.

From its expeditions, the U-2 plane discovered that the Soviet military was not as advanced as what was claimed by its leaders, leading the United States to believe that they weren’t too far behind their military rivals. However, the plane was shot down in Soviet airspace in 1960. Both the pilot and aircraft were recovered, keeping them out of the hands of the Soviet Union; however, US authorities were forced to admit the purpose of the mission.

This lead to the creation of the Lockheed A-12, an aircraft that could fly across the US in 70 minutes at an altitude of 90,000 feet, photographing objects on the ground that were just one-foot long. With the number of A-12 flights coming in and out of Area 51, reports of unidentifiable flying objects grew in the area. The aircraft’s titanium body and bullet speed resembled nothing seen in the US before.

With the nature of these military aircraft, coupled with the secrecy surrounding these espionage missions, it’s easy to see why conspiracy theories arose around the goings-on inside the military base.

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Alienstock Festival Returns to Rachel in September

February 28, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Mick Akers February 17, 2020 (reviewjournal.com)

• Last year, college student Matty Roberts created a Facebook meme to “storm the gate” of the secretive Air Force base known as Area 51 to “see them aliens.” The Alien Research Center in Hiko, Nevada and the ‘Little A’Le’Inn’ restaurant and hotel in Rachel, Nevada served as base camps for the 3,000 festivalgoers who actually attended what became “Alienstock”, a high-spirited festival of space alien enthusiasts featuring various musical acts, food vendors and activities.

• Lincoln County law enforcement anticipated a crowd of up to 30,000 people last year, and requested emergency funds to handle the expected crowds. As it turned out, the festival went off without a major incident. On the appointed day, September 20th, around 100 people showed up at the back gate of Area 51, chanted, and had fun with the law enforcement officials. A total of six arrests were made at the two Area 51 gates over the four-day event – five for trespassing and one for indecent exposure after a Canadian man urinated on the gate.

• Little A’Le’Inn owner Connie West was so pleased with the outcome of last year’s festival, she remarked that she would like to hold another Alienstock event in 2020. On the Little A’Le’Inn website, West has announced the dates for this year’s Alienstock – September 10-12.

• Citing safety and infrastructure concerns, the meme’s creator, Roberts, pulled out of the event last year. Roberts went on to host an alien-themed party in downtown Las Vegas. Roberts and his group, Hidden Sound LLC, are now in a legal battle with the Little A’Le’Inn owner, Connie West, for the rights to the ‘Alienstock’ name. The case is pending in the District Court.

• This year, Lincoln County commissioners have pre-signed a declaration of emergency for around $200,000 from the state of Nevada to help cover the costs of overseeing the alien-themed festival. But Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak says he doesn’t know why the state would have to bail the county when it approved the events. Still, Lincoln County commissioners have agreed to hear Connie West’s proposal for another Alienstock festival in a future commissioners meeting.

• Lincoln County emergency manager Eric Holt said that “Permits last year were approved in an effort to give order to the chaos and assist in the planning of such an unknown event.” But this year, some commissioners “have voiced their concerns with it and have requested a resolution in non-support of an Area 51 event that would require any support or response on behalf of Lincoln County.”

• Holt says that Lincoln County is not looking to provide an annual response to this event, similar to what Clark County (ie: Las Vegas) does on New Year’s Eve. “[A]ny future events would have to be self-supporting with no burden placed on the county.”

After attracting thousands of extraterrestrial fans from around the world to a rural Nevada desert town, Alienstock

organizers are preparing for a second go round.

Owners of restaurant and motel the Little A’Le’Inn in Rachel announced the dates for Alienstock 2020, listing the second annual festival will take place Sept. 10-12 on its website.

Last year’s event was created after a viral Facebook meme to storm the gate of the secretive Air Force base commonly known as Area 51 — long rumored to house extraterrestrial technology — to “see them aliens.” The Area 51 Basecamp event at the Alien Research Center in Hiko was also created in response to the attention the meme received.

The meme’s creator, college student Matty Roberts, initially signed on to be part of the Alienstock event, before pulling out, citing safety and infrastructure concerns. Roberts went on to host an alien-themed party in downtown Las Vegas.

Roberts and his group Hidden Sound LLC and Little A’Le’Inn owner Connie West are now in a legal battle for the

Alienstock name.

Their case is slated to be heard in a bench trial in District Court beginning next February, according to court records.

On the final day of Alienstock 2019, West mentioned her desire to hold the event again and said she already had someone book a room at the Little A’Le’Inn for the event.

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Area 51 Festival Wraps Up in Nevada; Earthlings Head Home

September 24, 2019
ExoNews Editor

Article by Associated Press September 22, 2019 (latimes.com)

• Although more than 2 million Facebook users clicked their interest, and local officials anticipated a crowd of at least 30,000, only about 3,000 people made the trip to the small desert city Rachel, Nevada to “Storm Area 51”. Authorities said no more than 1,000 people visited Area 51 gates near Rachel on Thursday and Friday. No one was arrested there.

• Visitors hailed from France, Russia, Germany, Peru, Sweden, Australia and many U.S. states. A few hundred more camped and attended one night of an abbreviated music festival about 40 miles away in Hiko, Nevada. “It seems like a lot of good people chilling and having a good time,” observed Dave Wells, a 56-year-old stonemason from Cincinnati wearing a Day-Glo green festival T-shirt and taking in the scene Saturday in Rachel.

• Connie West, proprietor of the Little A’Le’Inn at the epicenter of the Alienstock event, said “[W]e found peace and friendship” as campers packed up to leave and volunteers began cleaning up. West wants to do it again next year. “As well as it turned out? Why the heck not?” she said. At a festival clinic in Rachel, one man was treated for dehydration, and one woman was treated for a drug-related issue.

• The “Area 51 Basecamp” at the Alien Research Center souvenir shop in Hiko, didn’t fare as well. Organizers pulled the plug Saturday on a second concert after drawing only about 500 ticket-buyers for a Friday show. Preparations had been made for up to 5,000.

• Sheriff Kerry Lee said he watched about 20 people feign a rush before dawn Saturday toward a base gate outside Rachel, before stopping short. In Lincoln County, six people were arrested for misdemeanors, mostly trespassing beneath the floodlights and cameras of two military base gates and the watchful eyes of sheriff’s deputies.

• Officials had feared unruly crowds would overwhelm water, electricity, food, fuel, internet and telephone service in a county with just 5,200 people covering an area the size of Massachusetts. “I’m going to call it a success from our end. It’s because we got out in front of it,” said Varlin Higbee, a Lincoln County commissioner who signed an emergency declaration to allocate $250,000 in emergency funds. Higbee said they might sue to recoup costs.

• Matty Roberts, a 20-year-old from Bakersfield, Calif., made the Facebook post to Storm Area 51 as a hoax, then promoted it, then broke away from the event just weeks before. Roberts hosted a Thursday evening event at an outdoor venue in downtown Las Vegas, also using the “Alienstock” name. He said he wants to trademark the name and take it on tour to reach people who couldn’t travel to Nevada. “That’s pretty much the plan for me,” Roberts said. “It’s been a ton of fun.”

HIKO, Nev. — The festivals are over and Earthlings from around the globe headed home Sunday after a weekend camping and partying in the dusty Nevada desert and trekking to remote gates of Area 51, a formerly top-secret U.S. military base long the focus of UFO and space alien lore.

They left in peace, officials and the host of a free “Alienstock” festival said Sunday.

Visitors hailed from France, Russia, Germany, Peru, Sweden, Australia and many U.S. states — many toting cameras — in answer to an internet post in June suggesting that if enough people rushed a military base to “see them aliens” at 3 a.m. Sept. 20, authorities couldn’t stop everyone.

More than 2 million Facebook users clicked their interest, but in the end only a few thousand made the trip to the tiny Nevada desert city of Rachel, population about 50, more than two hours north of Las Vegas by car.

Campers and festival-goers in Rachel peaked at about 3,000 on Friday, said Eric Holt, the Lincoln County official who headed planning for a feared influx of at least 30,000.

A few hundred more camped and attended one night of an abbreviated festival about 40 miles away in Hiko, population 120.

“It seems like a lot of good people chilling and having a good time,” observed Dave Wells, a 56-year-old stonemason and festivals-seeker from Cincinnati wearing a Day-Glo green festival T-shirt and taking in the scene Saturday in Rachel.

Did anyone find actual extraterrestrials or UFOs? (As if anyone could really tell among the masked and costumed beings posing for photos and cavorting in the desert.)

“We didn’t,” said Little A’Le’Inn owner-turned-“Alienstock” festival host Connie West, proprietor of the 10-room motel and cafe that became the center of the extraterrestrial-seeking universe.

“But we found peace. And friendship,” she said Sunday as campers packed up to leave and volunteers began cleaning up.

4:45 minute video of people interviewed at Storm Area 51 event (Fox News YouTube)

10:16 minute video of the Storm Area 51 event (‘Explore With Us’ YouTube)

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The Storm Area 51 Festival Has Been Canceled to Avoid Creating “Fyrefest 2.0”

September 17, 2019
ExoNews Editor

Article by Reid McCarter September 11, 2019 (news.avclub.com)

• Alienstock is no more. The event’s website states: “Due to the lack of infrastructure, poor planning, risk management, and blatant disregard for the safety of the expected 10,000+ AlienStock attendees, we decided to pull the plug on the festival.”

• The cancellation is ostensibly due to a permit holder failing to provide the appropriate planning documentation. The organizers didn’t want the event to turn into a “humanitarian disaster” like the Fyre Festival (the May 2017 Bahamas festival that left visitors stranded and led to a fraud conviction for the organizer).

• The organizers are urging people to an alternate gathering. “[AlienStock] can only promise absolute safety and peace, and we need to move the Festival to guarantee that.” Accordingly, the whole thing’s been moved to a September 19th party at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center.

• The world was set to be changed forevermore from September 19 to 22 when Matty Roberts created the “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop Us All” Facebook event, which morphed into a music festival in Rachel, Nevada called AlienStock. Critics of the event say that the whole thing seemed like a complete ‘shitshow’ from the beginning, with hazy planning for a gathering of thousands of attendees in the tiny desert town.

The forces responsible for hiding aliens from us have triumphed once again. We thought they were finally on the ropes after internet mavericks announced a plan to storm Area 51, gathering huge masses of truth-seekers to Naruto-run past government bullets directly into an exciting new era of human/extraterrestrial coexistence. We thought it would work, even as alien whistleblower Bob Lazar (clearly compromised by the Men In Black) called the public invasion “not the way to go about trying to get information.” But now, despite overcoming such adversity and showing such ingenuity, the bastards have defeated the public for a final time.

Their tool? A permit holder whose interference in the planning process has caused the event organizers to withdraw in fear of causing, in their own words, “Fyre Fest 2.0.”

The world was set to be changed forevermore from September 19 to 22 when Matty Roberts, creator of the “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop Us All” Facebook event, decided to organize his ramshackle army into a festival held at Rachel, Nevada called, obviously, AlienStock. As Vice’s MJ Banias reported a few weeks ago, the whole thing seemed like a complete shitshow with hazy planning meant to accommodate thousands of attendees staying outside of a tiny desert town.

Now, with the highest echelons of the American government seizing on this instability, AlienStock has been canceled outright. The event’s website states: “Due to the lack of infrastructure, poor planning, risk management, and blatant disregard for the safety of the expected 10,000+ AlienStock attendees, we decided to pull the plug on the festival.”

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‘Storm Area 51’ Creator Pulls Out of His Own Event, Calling it Fyre Festival 2.0

September 16, 2019
ExoNews Editor

Article by Hannah Knowles September 10, 2019 (washingtonpost.com)

• When “Storm Area 51 – They Can’t Stop All of Us” post got over 2 million Facebook responses, the original organizer, 21 year-old Matty Roberts (pictured above), turned it into a music festival in neighboring Lincoln County, Nevada called “Alienstock” for September 20-22nd. Then Frank DiMaggio stepped up to plan a competing music festival in nearby Nye County called “Peacestock 51”.

• But Nye County denied a permit for the Peacestock 51 event. So DiMaggio partnered with Roberts to make Alienstock, centered in Rachel, Nevada, a success. Although the county asked for state emergency support to accommodate the potentially hundreds of thousands of people, the organizers assured the public that this would not be another Fyre Festival (the May 2017 Bahamas festival that left visitors stranded and led to a fraud conviction for the organizer).

• When DiMaggio arrived in Rachel to meet with the third organizing partner, Connie West, the owner of the ‘Little A’Le’Inn’ in Rachel, he quickly deemed the event ‘beyond help’. DiMaggio says that West, who was handling most of the logistics for the event, became increasingly evasive about her preparations. West, in turn, accused DiMaggio and Roberts of betraying her after she’s confirmed the musical performers, paid for security and medical services, and sold 2,400 campsites. Other preparations include 130 portable toilets and additional police officers to support more than 250 first responders from state and local government.

• But DiMaggio and Roberts say they have seen no proof of any preparations made by West. Says Roberts, “There’s no safety or security that can really be promised.” Calling the event a potential “humanitarian disaster,” Roberts has pulled his name and support from the event.

• West still plans to go ahead with the event in Rachel. In a tearful interview with Action 13 News, West said Alienstock is still on. But the townspeople in Rachel are not surprised at the falling out. They have been dubious about the Storm Area 51 phenomenon from the start. The town’s website declares, in red lettering, the outcome was “just as we had predicted.”

• Roberts believes that anyone going to Rachel will find a “pretty sad affair with no bands, very little infrastructure and a lot of unhappy campers.” But if people do want to come to Nevada for a gathering, Roberts suggests that they go to Las Vegas for an “Area 51 Celebration” that is scheduled at a downtown events center for September 19th. Roberts himself may even attend the Las Vegas affair.

When the college student behind the online sensation “Storm Area 51” announced plans for an alien festival out in the Nevada desert, organizers tried to fend off worries that thousands of people would overwhelm the resources of a tiny town without a store or gas station.

Or, as they put it to The Washington Post: This is not Fyre Festival 2.0.

But that was before a public falling-out between organizers made the weird story of the Area 51 craze even weirder, months after the meteoric rise of a joke Facebook event that got more than 2 million to say they’d raid a secretive Air Force base for rumored extraterrestrials. Dueling accusations of dishonesty and sabotage have derailed “Alienstock” — a Woodstock for alien watchers — which creator Matty Roberts promoted as alternative programming to any plans to storm the base on Sept. 20 despite officials’ warnings.

With just over a week to go until the event, Roberts and the host town’s website are both comparing Alienstock to the Fyre Festival, which was supposed to be held in April and May of 2017 in the Bahamas but became synonymous with “epic failure” and led to a fraud conviction. Roberts has pulled his name and support from the three-day gathering in Rachel, Nev., but the owner of a motel in the town who had signed up as a partner plans to go ahead.

“There’s no safety or security that can really be promised,” Roberts told The Post on Tuesday, calling the event a potential “humanitarian disaster.” “I didn’t feel comfortable with inviting even my friends and family out to this event, let alone these thousands of strangers.”

For Roberts, it all fell apart unexpectedly. But the town of Rachel — where residents were reportedly less than pleased with the “Storm Area 51” media swarm — has expressed less surprise.

The outcome was “just as we had predicted,” the town’s website declares in red lettering. Officials in two counties prepared earlier to declare emergencies, unsure how many people might descend on rural Nevada.

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‘Storm Area 51’ Event Pushes Rural Nevada County to Declare Emergency

August 26, 2019
ExoNews Editor

Article by Ed Komenda August 19, 2019 (rgj.com)

• In June, California resident Matty Roberts created the Facebook event called “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us”. Area 51 is a classified military facility set inside a test and training range roughly the size of Connecticut. Intrigue surrounding the base has fueled conspiracy theories and local lore about what exactly goes on there. The tongue-in-cheek event scheduled for September 20th has generated over two million accepted invitations.

• The gathering is set to take place in the town of Rachel, the self-proclaimed “UFO Capital of the World”, in Lincoln County. But Lincoln County leaders are apprehensive about an unknown number of people coming from unknown corners of the country to the small rural Nevada town. There’s a chance more people will show up than local authorities can handle.

• On August 19th, Lincoln County Commissioners voted unanimously for an emergency declaration ahead of the “Storm Area 51” invasion. Commissioner Kevin Phillips said, “We’re just trying to do the best we can to prepare for something we know not of. We have no pickin’ idea what we’re going to face – if anything.” The emergency declaration will allow the state of Nevada to supply resources if the town is overwhelmed.

• Air Force spokeswoman Laura McAndrews said in a statement to USA TODAY that military officials were aware of the event that aims to uncover conspiratorial secrets of the military installation. McAndrews warns that, “Any attempt to illegally access military installations or military training areas is dangerous.”

LAS VEGAS – Commissioners in Nevada’s rural Lincoln County have voted to pre-sign an emergency declaration ahead of the “Storm Area 51” raid event that’s so far drawn more than 2 million RSVPs on Facebook.

On Monday, the county board unanimously voted, 4-0, to approve the declaration in preparation for a mysterious affair that could draw thousands of curious visitors to the desert.

“We passed this with the caveat that this may or may not happen,” said District D Commissioner Kevin Phillips. “We’re just trying to do the best we can to prepare for something we know not of. We have no pickin’ idea what we’re going to face – if anything.”

California resident Matty Roberts created the event – called “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” – in June after listening to an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. The tongue-in-cheek event scheduled for Sept. 20 quickly generated millions of accepted invitations.

Lincoln County is home to the town of Rachel, the self-proclaimed “UFO Capital of the World,” located on State Route 375 – dubbed in 1996 the “Extraterrestrial Highway.”

The actual Area 51 site is a classified military facility set inside a test and training range roughly the size of Connecticut.Intrigue surrounding the impenetrable desert compound for decades has fueled conspiracy theories and local lore about what exactly goes on there.

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Communities Near Area 51 Brace for Influx of UFO Tourists

August 8, 2019
ExoNews Editor

Listen to “E57 8-8-19 Communities Near Area 51 Brace for Influx” on Spreaker.

Article by Anita Hassan July 27, 2019 (nbcnews.com)

• A Facebook event entitled “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” has created an internet frenzy. To date, almost 2 million people have RSVP’d for the September 20th gathering. The event’s organizer, Matty Roberts, claims it was a hoax. The Air Force has warned against anyone breaking into the property at the Nevada Test and Training Range, Nellis Air Force Base, commonly known as Area 51.

• Vern Holaday, 59, owns the Alamo Inn in Alamo, Nevada, north of Las Vegas. Holaday recalls that in the fall of 2009, his hotel hosted an annual UFO conference, and the secretive goings on at Area 51- about 35 miles to the west of Alamo – inevitably came up. A man from Ohio suggested that they storm Area 51 on motorcycles to outrun the military guards. Nothing ever came of it.

• Tourism from extraterrestrial enthusiasts began to boom in 1989 when an Area 51 engineer by the name of Bob Lazar told a Las Vegas television station that he’d worked on extraterrestrial aircraft at the facility. Since then, business owners and residents have welcomed tourists hoping to get a peek at the military facility or spot a UFO in the sky.

• When Holaday heard about the recent Facebook event, “All I thought was, ‘Here we go again.” Holaday has only two rooms still available for the event. Other local motel and campground owners are receiving scores of calls every day. Many are excited for the potential business. Some, though, are concerned about the lack of infrastructure to accommodate the potential crowds.

• “This is the most overwhelmed I’ve ever felt in my entire life,” said Connie West, co-owner of the motel, bar and restaurant called Little A’Le’Inn, located in a small town called Rachel on State Route 375, named the “Extraterrestrial Highway”, about 50 miles northwest from Alamo. She has been inundated with calls about everything from room bookings to bands that want to play on her property during the event. Like Holaday, she’s heard the conspiracy theorists’ talk of invading Area 51 for years, but nothing of this magnitude. “It’s a frenzy,” she said.

• The Little A’Le’Inn being the only bar within 100 miles, Connie West is stocking up on food and alcohol, as well as t-shirts, mugs and other novelty items for the gift shop. West is also in the process of clearing more land to make room for campers. Says West, “… conspiracy theorists, UFO believers and astronomy buffs… All are welcome.”

• But West is concerned about people getting hurt or arrested trying to make their way to Area 51. Some have speculated that local law enforcement will shut down roads leading to the military facility to prevent anyone from getting close. Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee said he could not discuss the details, but that the agency was prepared. Nellis Air Force Base said in a statement that “any attempt to illegally access the area is highly discouraged.”

• Misty Ingram, who works at the Alien Research Center novelty shop about 40 miles south of Rachel, said she hasn’t been able to keep t-shirts on the rack in the last few weeks. The best-selling items are the black T-shirts with red and white lettering that read: “Area 51, Groom Lake Research Facility S-4, WARNING, restricted area, use of deadly force authorized.” Ingram says, “I think it’s ridiculous that anyone thinks they are going to get into Area 51.” Ingram believes the event will morph into more of a makeshift festival than a raid.

• One night a while back, Holaday and some UFO-seeking guests drove down the Extraterrestrial Highway into Tikaboo Valley to a black mailbox in a dusty lot on the side of the road. Holaday said the mailbox belonged to a local rancher, but somehow over the years many came to believe it was a spot where aliens communicated with humans. Although the mailbox has been replaced since then, on a recent visit it was still stuffed with hand-scrawled notes, including one that read, “Dear Aliens, please take Donald Trump.”

ALAMO, Nev. — The first time Vern Holaday heard people talk about trying to storm Area 51, he was sitting around a campfire with about a dozen UFO enthusiasts outside the motel he owns in Alamo.

It was the fall of 2009, and the 15-room Alamo Inn was hosting an annual UFO conference. As it usually did, the conversation turned from alien life forms to conspiracy theories about Area 51 — the secretive military facility about 35 miles west of Alamo.

That night, a man from Idaho, who worked on motorcycles for a living, suggested to the others around the campfire that they could rush the facility on motorcycles, believing the military guards wouldn’t be able to stop them that way, Holaday recalled.

Nothing ever came of that scheme beyond campfire chatter, but Holaday, 59, thought of it recently when a Facebook event, titled “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us,” set off an internet frenzy. Even though the event’s creator, Matty Roberts, claimed it was a hoax and the Air Force warned against anyone breaking into the property — located within the Nevada Test and Training Range at the Nellis Air Force Base — almost 2 million people have RSVP’d on Facebook for the Sept. 20 gathering.

“All I thought was, ‘Here we go again,’” Holaday said, chuckling. As of this week, his motel, about 90 miles north of Las Vegas, had only two vacant rooms left for the days of the event.

**Misty Ingram at the Alien Research Center**

Tourism drawn by talk of extraterrestrial activities has been a part of the economy for decades in the small towns that dot the valleys near Area 51. The boom began around 1989, when Bob Lazar, a self-described engineer, claimed to a Las Vegas television station that he worked on extraterrestrial aircraft that were housed at Area 51. Since then, business owners and residents have welcomed tourists hoping to get a peek at the military facility or spot a UFO in the sky.

But the Facebook event has ramped up buzz to levels residents have never witnessed, with motel and campground owners receiving scores of calls a day. If the event brings the masses it’s promised, many in the area are excited for the potential extra business. Some, though, are also concerned about the lack of infrastructure to accommodate the crowds that could attend.

“This is the most overwhelmed I’ve ever felt in my entire life,” said Connie West, who co-owns a motel, bar and restaurant called Little A’Le’Inn with her mother in Rachel, a tiny town about 50 miles from Alamo. Since the end of June, her business has been inundated with calls about everything from room bookings to bands that want to play on her property during the event. Like Holaday, she’s heard the conspiracy theorists talk of invading Area 51 for years, but nothing of this magnitude. “It’s a frenzy,” she said.

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Bud Light Offers to Give Free Beer to ‘Any Alien That Makes it Out’ of Area 51

July 25, 2019
ExoNews Editor

by Aris Folley July 18, 2019 (thehill.com)

In response to an online campaign to “Storm Area 51”, referring to a Nevada military base where some believe the US government holds extraterrestrial craft and possibly ET beings, the beer company, Bud Light, is offering free beer to any aliens that make it out of Area 51.
The “Storm Area 51” Facebook event, which was conceived by Matty Roberts as a ‘joke’, has accumulated well over a million people who plan to meet up at the Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction to coordinate their mass invasion of Area 51 on September 20th.
In a series of tweets, the beer maker first joked that it would “… be the first brand to formally announce that we will not be sponsoring the Area 51 raid.” Days later, the company changed its tune, tweeting: “Screw it. Free Bud Light to any alien that makes it out.”
Bud Light released a photo of what it referred to as its “Area 51 Special Edition” beer, showing a green and black beer bottle with a label reading: “Greetings Earthlings. This is the famous Area 51.” The beer label reads: “We know of no space beer by any other life form which is brewed and aged to be more refreshing. Our cryogenic aging produces a light bodied space lager with a fresh taste, a crisp, clean finish, and a smooth drinkability.” I then adds, “Take us to your leader. We come in peace.”
A spokeswoman for the base said, “[Area 51] is an open training range for the U.S. Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces. The U.S. Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets.”

But Light is offering to give free beer to any aliens that make it out of Area 51 in Nevada, as an online campaign to “storm” the site has attracted the attention of millions.

The beer maker made the announcement in a series of tweets about the military base, which conspiracy theorists have long believed to be a place where government officials hold secret information about extraterrestrial beings.

In one tweet on Monday, the company joked that it would “like to be the first brand to formally announce that we will not be sponsoring the Area 51 raid.”

But later in the week, the company changed its tune, tweeting: “Screw it. Free Bud Light to any alien that makes it out.”

The company then released a photo of what it referred to as its “Area 51 Special Edition” beer.
The photo showed a green and black beer bottle with a label reading: “Greetings Earthlings. This is the famous Area 51.”

“We know of no space beer by any other life form which is brewed and aged to be more refreshing,” the label continued. “Our cryogenic aging produces a light bodied space lager with a fresh taste, a crisp, clean finish, and a smooth drinkability.

“Take us to your leader,” it added. The promotion also featured the message: “We come in peace.”

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Tag: Matty Roberts