On 27 June, Matty Roberts, a 20-year-old college student and video game enthusiast, created a Facebook page as a joke: Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us. He proposed the raid take place on 20 September, and added, “Let’s see them aliens.”
Two million people RSVP’d.
Area 51 – a classified US military installation rumored to facilitate extra-terrestrial contact – is about two hours north of Las Vegas in the Nevada desert. The closest town is Rachel, population 54.
Most of the people who signed up to the Facebook page were clearly in it for the joke. But if even a tiny percentage are serious, thousands of people could descend on rural Nevada.
Roberts, who has shoulder-length hair and a goatee, and was interviewed on television wearing a tunic, has since pivoted. He and others are organizing an electronic music festival – Alienstock – in Rachel. They’ve secured a permit from the county government and are working with area landowners and the town’s only public lodging house to find space for a potential deluge of EDM hobbyists in camper vans.
When I called a motel in Alamo, Nevada, the clerk told me every motel an hour in every direction was booked solid for 20 September.
He was concerned people might get carried away. “I mean, shit, man, Area 51, it’s the military. There’s no fucking around. I hope nobody gets hurt. I’ve read about Area 51 and that’s a serious place, what with the tunnels leading to Colorado and Washington and everything.” (Note: There is no evidence of secret tunnels connecting Area 51 to the White House and bunkers in Colorado. Of course, there is also no evidence that there aren’t tunnels.)
It is unclear how the festival organizers plan to handle water, electrical and sanitary needs. Even a few hundred people could overwhelm the infrastructure. The local government has limited means to respond to fires, crime or medical emergencies, and the desert climate reaches dangerous extremes. County authorities – perhaps anxious to avoid becoming the site of the next Fyre Festival – have “pre-signed” a state of emergency.
“The locals are not on board, nobody asked us, and we don’t appreciate anyone threatening to take over our town,” Joerg Arnu, a local resident, told Time. “I’ll do anything in my power to prevent this.”
The website for Little A’Le’Inn, Rachel’s only inn, cautions visitors to drive carefully. “When the sun starts to set the cows like to cross over the roadways and can be hard to see.”
Local law enforcement are reportedly planning to shut down the roads into Area 51 to keep out anyone actually attempting a raid.
The US military has responded to the whole affair with characteristic humor. “[W]e would discourage anyone from trying to come into [an] area where we train American armed forces,” a press officer told the Washington Post. “The US Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets.”
Alienstock is scheduled for 20-22 September. The website has strict rules for attendees, including an absolute prohibition on drones. After all, the site says, this is “common airspace for government operations”.