In case you didn't hear about the unintentional event and internet viral phenomenon, Storm Area 51: They Can't Stop Us All -- It was a joke started by Matty Roberts on Facebook as just another one of many shitposts one would expect to find on social media. The difference here was that this particular joke caught fire across the internet, and at it's peak had nearly four million people RSVP'ing the event.
As it's title suggests, 'goal' of this joke event was to 'storm' Area 51, one of the most famously top secret military bases in the world, and expose the existence of extraterrestrial life hidden there. It was a laughably impossible goal, considering the main tactic was to Naruto run the 20 or so miles from the main gates to the military base itself. Still, the idea of meeting up at Area 51 seemed to capture enough people's imaginations that making some kind of event happen in reality on September 20th, 2019 seemed like a good idea.
At first the get together was scheduled to happen at the Area 51 Alien Center, which confusingly enough wasn't really located near any of the gates to the Area 51 base (that I'm aware of). Then the event moved to Rachel, Nevada at the Little Ale'inn Restaurant and Motel, which made a lot more sense in my opinion, since it's located on the Extratrerrestrial Highway and has been centrally located to other interesting things in the area for quite some time, such as the Black Mailbox, Tikaboo Peak, and multiple roads to various gates leading into the Area 51 base itself.
Most confusingly of all though, was Matty Robert's decision only a week before the event was supposed to take place to move the it to some club in Las Vegas. His claims at the time were that the organizers in Rachel were not being forth coming about permits or whether they would have enough water or toilets and other infrastructure for the event. Honestly though, after talking to locals in the area, and seeing that there was no lack of facilities during the event, I personally think a more likely scenario is that some club promoter came to him at the last minute, handed him a stack of money, and told him to move it to their location in Las Vegas. On the first day of the Vegas event he announced his intentions to take the event 'on tour' around the country as well.
So, on a side note, fuck Matty Roberts for selling out on his own event. With all the trouble he caused the residents of Rachel and basically sabotaging all the work they put into it, I'd say the majority of people there feel the same way. I believe this event would have been much larger if Matty had just stuck to the original plan in Rachel.
Instead, I showed up on Friday the 20th to a largely empty parking lot. The actual campgrounds next door was actually fairly full, but I wasn't about to drop $80-$140 on that when I could just sleep in my car (the parking was still $60, which I had purchased before all the confusion around this event began) and there was perfectly campable BLM land on the other side of the highway.
I made my way around the area trying to see what, if anything, was going on. The main event area was just north of the parking lot past the Little Ale'inn restaurant, so I went over there first. There wasn't a lot of people around, but it was still very early. There were a few vendors set up and the main stage, but other than that there wasn't really anything going on.
Fortunately, people were very friendly, and I was invited to a game of beer pong using full size garbage cans and dodge balls. There were a few vendors set up for food and beer, but honestly it was all pretty overpriced. Especially considering how few people were around, it was kind of surprising that very few of the vendors were willing to budge from their prices of around $7 for a can of PBR.
Wandering around the main event area and seeing what beer/food booths were available killed some time until I ran into @BlowUpTrains which was pretty great, and this is definitely when things started to pick up. I knew they were traveling down the coast via motorcycle, but it was cool that we both recognized each other in real life. They introduced me to two other folks he'd met at the event @DesertDixie and Cody and we actually grouped up for the rest of the event.
There were some generic techno music and other bands playing that night, but honestly none of it was all that special and it really seemed kind of chaotic since no one had any idea when any particular band would be performing.
Interestingly enough, @DesertDixie and Cody were also traveling in a Prius just like I was, so we got to nerd out a little bit over each of our car camping setups. Meeting these three people were honestly the best part of the event for me. Super interesting, fun people to pal around with, and we even met up with two other girls from Colorado and collectively made our way to the main gates of Area 51 for some photos.
There was about a 500 foot buffer between where this picture was taken and a roadblock where we had to park our vehicles and walk the rest of the way. The government had obviously added some fresh barbed wire going an extra 200ft or so in each direction around the gate to dissuade anyone from trying anything funny.
For the most part, it was just folks walking the distance from their cars to the gate to get some selfies like the one I took above. I did hear about one person getting arrested for crossing the gate itself and a few warnings issued to others, but in the end there definitely wasn't any 'storming' of the gates, not that this was much of a surprise, since you'd literally have to Naruto run another 20 miles to the base itself.
Despite the low turn out, the complete lack of any kind of 'raid', and the overpriced vendors, I still had a pretty good time, mostly because of the people I met and the time we spent just hanging out and bullshitting about various things (some related to ufos and some not).
I did end up leaving on Sunday morning though, since by that time I just couldn't see anything else exciting happening at this event. Still though, I'm glad I went this gathering rather than whatever BS event Matty Roberts was putting on in Las Vegas, and since I had already checked out nearly all the places in this area on my bucket list last week, I figured it was time to get headed east to New Orleans...
As it's title suggests, 'goal' of this joke event was to 'storm' Area 51, one of the most famously top secret military bases in the world, and expose the existence of extraterrestrial life hidden there. It was a laughably impossible goal, considering the main tactic was to Naruto run the 20 or so miles from the main gates to the military base itself. Still, the idea of meeting up at Area 51 seemed to capture enough people's imaginations that making some kind of event happen in reality on September 20th, 2019 seemed like a good idea.
At first the get together was scheduled to happen at the Area 51 Alien Center, which confusingly enough wasn't really located near any of the gates to the Area 51 base (that I'm aware of). Then the event moved to Rachel, Nevada at the Little Ale'inn Restaurant and Motel, which made a lot more sense in my opinion, since it's located on the Extratrerrestrial Highway and has been centrally located to other interesting things in the area for quite some time, such as the Black Mailbox, Tikaboo Peak, and multiple roads to various gates leading into the Area 51 base itself.
Most confusingly of all though, was Matty Robert's decision only a week before the event was supposed to take place to move the it to some club in Las Vegas. His claims at the time were that the organizers in Rachel were not being forth coming about permits or whether they would have enough water or toilets and other infrastructure for the event. Honestly though, after talking to locals in the area, and seeing that there was no lack of facilities during the event, I personally think a more likely scenario is that some club promoter came to him at the last minute, handed him a stack of money, and told him to move it to their location in Las Vegas. On the first day of the Vegas event he announced his intentions to take the event 'on tour' around the country as well.
So, on a side note, fuck Matty Roberts for selling out on his own event. With all the trouble he caused the residents of Rachel and basically sabotaging all the work they put into it, I'd say the majority of people there feel the same way. I believe this event would have been much larger if Matty had just stuck to the original plan in Rachel.
Instead, I showed up on Friday the 20th to a largely empty parking lot. The actual campgrounds next door was actually fairly full, but I wasn't about to drop $80-$140 on that when I could just sleep in my car (the parking was still $60, which I had purchased before all the confusion around this event began) and there was perfectly campable BLM land on the other side of the highway.
I made my way around the area trying to see what, if anything, was going on. The main event area was just north of the parking lot past the Little Ale'inn restaurant, so I went over there first. There wasn't a lot of people around, but it was still very early. There were a few vendors set up and the main stage, but other than that there wasn't really anything going on.
Fortunately, people were very friendly, and I was invited to a game of beer pong using full size garbage cans and dodge balls. There were a few vendors set up for food and beer, but honestly it was all pretty overpriced. Especially considering how few people were around, it was kind of surprising that very few of the vendors were willing to budge from their prices of around $7 for a can of PBR.
Wandering around the main event area and seeing what beer/food booths were available killed some time until I ran into @BlowUpTrains which was pretty great, and this is definitely when things started to pick up. I knew they were traveling down the coast via motorcycle, but it was cool that we both recognized each other in real life. They introduced me to two other folks he'd met at the event @DesertDixie and Cody and we actually grouped up for the rest of the event.
There were some generic techno music and other bands playing that night, but honestly none of it was all that special and it really seemed kind of chaotic since no one had any idea when any particular band would be performing.
Interestingly enough, @DesertDixie and Cody were also traveling in a Prius just like I was, so we got to nerd out a little bit over each of our car camping setups. Meeting these three people were honestly the best part of the event for me. Super interesting, fun people to pal around with, and we even met up with two other girls from Colorado and collectively made our way to the main gates of Area 51 for some photos.
There was about a 500 foot buffer between where this picture was taken and a roadblock where we had to park our vehicles and walk the rest of the way. The government had obviously added some fresh barbed wire going an extra 200ft or so in each direction around the gate to dissuade anyone from trying anything funny.
For the most part, it was just folks walking the distance from their cars to the gate to get some selfies like the one I took above. I did hear about one person getting arrested for crossing the gate itself and a few warnings issued to others, but in the end there definitely wasn't any 'storming' of the gates, not that this was much of a surprise, since you'd literally have to Naruto run another 20 miles to the base itself.
Despite the low turn out, the complete lack of any kind of 'raid', and the overpriced vendors, I still had a pretty good time, mostly because of the people I met and the time we spent just hanging out and bullshitting about various things (some related to ufos and some not).
I did end up leaving on Sunday morning though, since by that time I just couldn't see anything else exciting happening at this event. Still though, I'm glad I went this gathering rather than whatever BS event Matty Roberts was putting on in Las Vegas, and since I had already checked out nearly all the places in this area on my bucket list last week, I figured it was time to get headed east to New Orleans...
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