"Area 51 is an American military base—more specifically a part of the Nellis Air Force Base, located North of Las Vegas, Nevada. Due to its remoteness and secrecy, it has long been rumored to house aliens. There have been claimed sightings throughout the surrounding desert, and imagery of it runs rampant in popular culture."
-Nat Salop
Area 51. We've all heard of it at some time or another. Maybe it was from a friend, maybe from the internet, maybe from Creepy Steve who smoked behind the gym at your high school. If, by chance, you're one of the ever-decreasing number of people who have not heard of Area 51, it is an American military base—more specifically a part of the Nellis Air Force Base, located North of Las Vegas, Nevada. Due to its remoteness and secrecy, it has long been rumored to house aliens. There have been claimed sightings throughout the surrounding desert, and imagery of it runs rampant in popular culture. Recently, it reentered society’s view in a new and concerning way.
On June 27th of 2019, a college student by the name of Matty Roberts created an Facebook event: Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us. The Facebook event read, "If we naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. [Let's] see them aliens" Naruto refers to a popular anime in which the characters run in a particular manner with their arms behind their heads. The event was scheduled for September 20th, and by the time the post was taken down, over two million people had signed up to go. It soon spread to TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit. Memes circulated through the internet on this one subject, and dozens of articles were written about the subject, including a TIME piece.
Once it began to go viral through social media, the event began to also appear in more legitimate sources. Renowned country rapper Lil Nas X released a video for a remix of his song “Old Town Road” with additions from Mason Ramsey, Young Thug, and Billy Ray Cyrus. It included imagery of Area 51, the aliens, and Keanu Reeves naruto running through the foreground. The US Military even issued a response, stating, "’[Area 51] is an open training range for the U.S. Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces’, adding that ‘[t]he U.S. Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets’."
In response to so much publicity and realising that it would not be safe for millions of people, creator Matty Roberts decided to come up with an alternate event to siphon off some of the alien-rescuers. It was called Alienstock, a free music festival held on September 19, in the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center. The acts range from bands like the Weird Kids, a Portland-based alt-rock group with years of experience as professional musicians, to Speed of Light, a trio of young siblings from L.A., to bass-heavy DJ HVRCRFT to dancing girl group Pynk Le’monade.
In the end, about 1,500 people ended up showing up to the surrounding festivals, and maybe 150 people made their way all the way up to the Area 51 gates. The whole exchange was peaceful, with an attendee stating, “The guards were unbelievably nice. They took photos with everyone and were pretty much just smiling”. Only three people were ever arrested, for crimes including “public urination.”
Overall, the whole thing turned out to be pretty anticlimactic, not resulting in anything but a lot of memes, media, and new content for the people at home. And on the subject of whether there are aliens in Area 51, I suppose we’ll never know. So far, the only aliens that we have discovered are ourselves.
In response to so much publicity and realising that it would not be safe for millions of people, creator Matty Roberts decided to come up with an alternate event to siphon off some of the alien-rescuers. It was called Alienstock, a free music festival held on September 19, in the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center. The acts range from bands like the Weird Kids, a Portland-based alt-rock group with years of experience as professional musicians, to Speed of Light, a trio of young siblings from L.A., to bass-heavy DJ HVRCRFT to dancing girl group Pynk Le’monade.
In the end, about 1,500 people ended up showing up to the surrounding festivals, and maybe 150 people made their way all the way up to the Area 51 gates. The whole exchange was peaceful, with an attendee stating, “The guards were unbelievably nice. They took photos with everyone and were pretty much just smiling”. Only three people were ever arrested, for crimes including “public urination.”
Overall, the whole thing turned out to be pretty anticlimactic, not resulting in anything but a lot of memes, media, and new content for the people at home. And on the subject of whether there are aliens in Area 51, I suppose we’ll never know. So far, the only aliens that we have discovered are ourselves.
