‘It started as a joke’
About 100 revelers reach gates of Area 51 in Nevada, then peacefully rejoin party
HIKO, Nev. — Hundreds of curious Earthlings from around the world traveled to the secret Area 51 military base in the Nevada desert after seeing an internet hoax dubbed “Storm Area 51.”
About 100 made it all the way to the gates of the remote site that has long been the focus of UFO conspiracy theories.
A Canadian was cited for indecent exposure, but nobody broke down the gates in search of three-eyed aliens and no UFOs appeared in the sky.
It wasn’t long before the revelers peacefully rejoined 2,000 other people at alien-themed festivals in the tiny towns of Rachel and Hiko.
As he walked away from one of the gates, 25-year-old Cyril Soudant of Lille, France, said he was disappointed at how few people were at the event. He took video for his YouTube channel and said he would wait until Friday night to make his final assessment on the experience.
“If we get together, have some music, have some beers, that would be a success,” Soudant said.
Among the revelers was Jade Gore, who quit her job at a Dairy Queen in Worthington, Minn., and drove to Nevada with Tracy Ferguson. They wrote “Area 51 bound” and “Comin 4 Dem Alien Cheeks” in green paint on the windows of their car.
“People were taking pictures and laughing the whole way,” said Gore, 19, who sported dyed green hair and eyebrows.
Ferguson, a truck driver, said they decided to make the trip after seeing the social media post in June calling for people to converge on the remote U.S. Air Force test site. “It started as a joke, and now people are getting to know each other,” said Ferguson, 23, of Sioux Falls, S.D.
Authorities expected more people to arrive throughout the day for the festivals offering music and alien-related activities.
They were sternly discouraged by the military and other law enforcement from acting on the internet hoax that jokingly said, “They can’t stop all of us. Let’s see them aliens.”