Caitlyn Dieckmann
3 September 2019
Starting as a joke on Facebook turned music festival, people across social media popularized the idea of storming Area 51. According to the Facebook page that started the mass uproar, the event had reached over one million followers “interested” in attending.
According to CBS News, coordinator, Mathew Roberts of the “Storm Area 51” Facebook event, has changed plans to turn the raid into a music festival called “Alienstock,” which will take place Sep. 9 -22. The original Facebook page for the raid has since been taken down.
It has become a question whether the event will be a success or a ‘dud.’ Students at UCCS certainly have their own thoughts on what kind of success the raid and music festival will have.
Freshman nursing major Jessica Pena thinks that raiding Area 51 is an “overhyped situation” and that “there are more important things that people could focus on.”
As far as the festival goes, Pena believes it is a cool event that could bring together people of different backgrounds. She spoke about aliens, saying she was “not actually a person who believes in the supernatural” and that she did not think aliens were real. Overall, however, Pena believes the whole event will be successful based on the amount of “hype it has been given on social media.”
Daniel Zamora, a sophomore physics major, has a different take on raiding Area 51. “I’m on the fence, because I don’t think people would really go,” Zamora said. However, he spoke of the raiding event being impressive “if by some miracle it worked.”
He had not heard about raiding Area 51 being turned into a music festival, although has an interesting take on aliens. Zamora said, “It’s good to be a skeptic, but it’s not bad to believe in something.”
Another student, freshman communications major Mikayla Arnold, spoke of the raid, saying, “I think it’s funny.” She mentioned how it is obviously something that people take very seriously, but that there is humor in the fact that people want to raid the highly classified air force facility.
Arnold was also unaware that the joke has become the start of a music festival, but said, “I think that a large amount of people will end up going.” Arnold also said, “I think I would go just to be in on the joke.” As for the topic of aliens in general, she does not think we are the only beings out there. Overall, Arnold loves the idea of the raid/festival because of how it started as a joke and moved to “a whole cultural movement.”