I came equipped with a duffel bag of Hawaiian shirts and a case of vape cartridges, which I hoped to use as currency in the event of civilizational collapse in the desert.īut the desert would wait. No one had any idea how many people were coming. Now there were three rival events all happening on the same weekend – one in Las Vegas, another in Rachel and a third in Hiko. Alienstock would happen, she said, whether anyone liked it or not. She’d already sunk thousands of dollars of her own money into the event, she told reporters as she held back tears. West refused to cancel the concert in the desert. Roberts urged people to go there instead.
Budweiser offered to sponsor a free, alternative Alienstock event in a “safe, clean” venue in downtown Las Vegas. He accused West of being insufficiently prepared for the coming flood.
He wanted no involvement in a “ Fyre Fest 2.0”, he told the media. On 10 September, nine days before the event, Roberts backed out. Within hours, the page had thousands of RSVPs. The local authorities feared potential calamity: people dying of dehydration in the desert, angry landowners, madmen with guns. But the town of Rachel (population: 54) lacked the infrastructure to handle thousands of conspiracy theorists and gawkers descending on rural Nevada. Scornful of the internet interlopers, the Alien Research Center in nearby Hiko, Nevada, decided to host its own Area 51 event the same weekend – for serious ufologists. So he came up with a brilliant pivot: why not channel this momentum into a Burning Man-style music festival in the desert? He joined forces with Connie West, the operator of Rachel’s sole inn and restaurant, to plan what they called Alienstock. The FBI paid the hapless Matty Roberts a house call.
The air force warned that things would end badly for anyone attempting a raid. Inspired by the Rogan podcast, Roberts created a joke Facebook event: “ Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us.” According to the plan, people would meet in Rachel, Nevada – the closest town to Area 51 – in the early morning of 20 September, then swarm the defenses and see for themselves if the government was hiding aliens. One of those listeners was Matty Roberts, a college student, anime enthusiast and video gamer in Bakersfield, California.
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