Inside Storm Area 51: How a Viral Meme Almost Destroyed a Town

is it possible to make money off of a meme obviously I think it is they agreed to print me each one of those for a doll and a half I'm here selling them for $20 each UFOs and all things alien secrecy that's what alien stock is about let's party around aliens let's get it back into the mainstream soon as you ask for money and you don't get the right answers get the bail that was it they were like whoa this is too much drama people are gonna die I can't be a part of this fire fest 2.0 the idea of having to raid out here is pretty wild to me I don't know how people are gonna Naruto run through shrubs and rocks and rattlesnakes it's a terrible idea cuz they do shoot people I told her you don't have a festival somebody really left her hole in the back she's out a lot of money just one person that she'd do business with it's can kind of jeopardize the whole thing I didn't plan it it planned me memes have a life of their own you know and they actually control people they make people do things I really hope people actually come otherwise there's all just a big troll on everybody daily in stock how do you like it I first heard about the storm area51 Facebook event back in July when it popped up on my feet the plan was to rush the gates and break into area 51 to see them aliens we were immediately charmed like the rest of the Internet and the prospect of people showing up to raid a heavily fortified military installation caused a full-blown media storm it was a joke but one the Air Force is taking seriously nearly a million Facebook users say they're going to raid area 51 the number of people who say they're interested just keeps growing let's see them aliens corporate America wants a piece specifically Bud Light Vice wasn't immune to the spectacle producing several videos playing right into the hype what do you think they'll find that area 51 aliens and while the events creator Maddie Roberts turn the raid into a music festival that was set to take place in a small town in rural Nevada many of the locals worried about being overrun by a viral meme this bad boys gonna be with me and then we have a couple of radios that we're gonna be using we're gonna have a final meeting before this whole thing goes down and basically the waters gonna be if one of us is in trouble we'll just radio everybody and hopefully everybody else will come in and then he'll I bought property here about 15 years ago and I started what became the official Rachel website on the front page right here we have an update it says with less than two weeks to go no visible preparations have been made for this event no bands have been announced it is more and more likely to turn to fire fest 2.0 it's very quiet on the town of 50 people there is no infrastructure and Rachel we have no gas station we have no store most of the roads are dirt roads there's a little country bar with a little motel attached that is the only business in town and we don't even know if we're gonna have 500 people show up or if we're gonna have 50,000 people show up this event has turned so many corners it started with some 20 year old Yahoo dreaming up this Facebook event then they said well we're gonna have a party in Rachel Mya drummer solved the joke post on Facebook gaining a few hundred thousand marks and so we figured we'd hit up the little alien we called Connie up said hey you mind if we come out and set up a stage in your parking lot and bring a few friends bands and have some music she's like you know this is a joke right like this isn't a real thing how did you start this what led up I didn't start it the internet started it and it just dumped in my lap Jeremy from whitey savage called said they wanted to play we were thinking like a little 12 by 12 stage in the parking lot have a few of our friends bands come out few weeks later we had a whole nother monster on our hands and then where did Maddie Roberts come into what happened there came in about maybe a month after we talked to Connie to set up something here he came to Connie saying hey let's do an EDM festival so we were just looking for different places to potentially hold something like this no plans have been set into place yet and Connie West had hit me up earlier like three days prior to us coming out to Vegas it's like hey let's plan something and so we could drive out to Rachel Nevada just to see what we could do and then that's where we decided that we were going to plan this thing I thought hey gosh that's a that's a crazy idea but I thought I thought Woodstock was crazy to call this aliens dock we're planning for ten to twenty thousand that's quite a swag if three people came per vehicle we'll have 10,000 people here based on the parking space permits that have been applied how much money has been poured in to this by the county we have at this point in time appropriated $250,000 but we're going to see how it all turns out because we've busted ourselves silly to provide for basic needs we're fearful that there's gonna be an awful lot of people it could be a disaster it might be a wonderful thing who knows we're going to find out I'm afraid it's just going to be overwhelming and we lose control and a lot of unhappy campers we fear that they will turn against the local residences and start raiding homes and trashing properties here Rachel hey for all we know there's no water bathroom seeing as this could be the event of the year we convinced our boss to give us the money to fly to the middle of the desert to see what some had called fire fast 2.0 if there's a company that should be out there should be us you know what I mean you might as well throw the dice at this and take the a risk and just if it happens and it happens it started as one thing it started as a Facebook post to store Mary 51 and then went to a music festival and then now it's in the days leading up to the event we desperately try to contact people on the ground in Nevada hey Frank how are you doing hi Cory this is the exposure hi Connie at Z Spector hi Melissa this is Zeke spectrum and despite our best efforts we were left with more questions than answers we're still trying to figure this all out I'll read you this text message alien stock just turned into fire fest it got ugly as the drama unfolded behind the scenes we still couldn't get ahold of Connie to see if we could cover the event even though Connie hadn't given us permission to come to her event on Rachel we flew to Vegas flushed with company cash and saw that we could purchase a thousand dollar media pass then here's our guy media parking one thousand dollars just feel like it's like queasy feeling in my stomach I got swindled we also rented an RV and bought proper camping supplies we prepared for the worst because quite frankly man it's windy out all we had heard was that it was going to be a total disaster we're about half an hour from the little alien we were listening to the ham radio repeater and we picked up some traffic about a possible rate either tonight at midnight or at 3:00 a.m. you know a lot of people may not be trying to raid but according to Facebook there's still some crazy out there who want to raid oh here's the town of Rachel we can get it later there is a ton of media look at this we had channel 3 Fox ABC there's a stage it's pretty small you guys are going to be back down this way okay bye Joe NBC truck okay did all those guys pay a thousand as well alright when we got to Rachel the crowd was far smaller than what we were expecting we've got a modest stage with about 40 people behind me and a ton of land and it feels like infrastructure built for a much larger crowd but right now it's looking like a jam band and a couple guys in alien gear hanging out in the desert where'd you guys come from well I live in Las Vegas so we went up on Monday night just to check it out and see the base okay not a lot of movement or anything like that did you see them aliens no we do not see the Americans okay are you nervous Beth I'm coming after you for taking a peek no look at all the people are here man you know we're all seven fun okay that's it this is all about having fun all about having fun all right the turnout on the eve of alien stock was underwhelming to say the least which might be because Maddy Roberts had dropped out of the Rachel vent at the last minute to host another event in Las Vegas everything was coming together he watched Maddy on TV one day saying that exact thing we've got most of our major infrastructure solved already we've got all of the deposits made we've got a book pretty much from here it's just finished leveling the land and start building 3 a.m. that same day he's gone he's done and that was because he had a conversation with Frank DiMaggio my name's Frank DiMaggio I was called in to help co-produced alien stock well we were called in at the 11th hour a couple of weeks back to help with alien stock out and Rachel so after we set up a meeting to to kind of go through discovery with Connie we realized that all the things that needed to be in place for us to even consider being involved or not she had told us that there were deposits made on security deposits made on EMS land had been cleared and we'd go out to Rachel and none of that has been done and there's no documentation for any of these deposits I don't have to prove to you what I said you didn't sign the contract with me to begin with so guess what I don't need to prove to you a thing like to get the out you wasted everybody's time for two and a half hours now you're gonna sit there like this is all a big secret that's where the excitement just kind of died and it was like I can't invite friends out here and tell them that they're gonna be safe the decision to call it off was probably one of the best decisions I've made so now we've moved to a much safer venue the people of downtown Las Vegas Event Center they're gracious enough to take us in as partners and let me host the area51 celebration it's just gonna be an incredible experience they walked away leaving everybody high and dry at the 11th hour I think they got some dollar signs in their eyes after Maddie dropped out the official alien stopped webpage was changed to redirect festival goers to Frank and Maddie's new area 51 celebration in downtown Las Vegas that was the key to their disinformation was having the two Internet outlets the meme itself the event and the access to the back end of that website well we changed over the website that way we weren't like misdirecting people to Rachel just because I don't want to be a part of that it's dangerous it sucked it sucked it was a you know it was betrayal and then that's how it felt he pulls out and leaves all this mess he started and created behind him well I'm not impressed organizers for Maddie's event in Las Vegas said that 10,000 people had shown up and what was the start of a new enterprise that was revealed that very night all right we're back in the RV we went back and looked at the original Facebook group and it's now changed to the official alien stock tour night clubs parties festivals meet and greets and more coming to a galaxy near you it's just soak and walking up sniper Hill it's off the main road from the back gate it's actually much closer than the back end we're down to go well gear up this is exciting but can we ride in somebody's car we just don't to take our RV up there with us everybody warm enough back here yeah I'm good thanks okay I've kind of like to terrify Italy it's kind of like nervous all right are you guys nervous at all like you'd like the the what you told me before Scott is is you we went up the mountain a bit and we were met with two Nevada State Police they didn't say we couldn't go to the gate but they strongly advised us to turn around warning the US Air Force facility on the right this is as far as we go our caravan of three cars was about as close to rate as we were gonna get on that first night as we took our photos for Instagram I realized there was never going to be a mass trespassing and standing under the stars gave us time to reflect on what the real point of this was thanks for bringing us out here Scott this guy's just a big curiosity man it's the meaning of life that's all it is are we alone [Music] there are the pinnacle of Millennials to be sure what better death could there be than dying for a meme I'm the space monkey I'm from Tahoe I'm trying to find them aliens I just want to see it's gonna burn or if it's gonna thrive what happened yes we did go to the raid and we cross one because blind is really mean stuff I don't think personally I mean sure I disrespect you their property or whatever but like no I'm gonna go play with them I have a sticker if anyone buys anything for me I'll give you a free sticker of yourself my name is Ollie I'll Cherie very nice to meet I'm an international student everything over is the Arizona I'm a senior in computer science okay look I'm young Ghana should be wild I thought to myself this is only gonna happen once in a lifetime my death but I'm not gonna be talking about my internship I'm gonna be talking about the day invaded a military base just start a business by Friday afternoon festival-goers were taking impromptu trips to the area 51 entrances so we hitched a ride with a guy named hunter who drove us to the Rachel so why did you come out here today Mia I did it for the mean everybody was like ah you're not really gonna go to meme right and then everybody who came here it's like your faith was rewarded you know you know where the word meme came from I actually don't know where the word Dawkins so the concept of a gene that spreads itself the meme is like the chain but it's an idea so it means it means you're analyzing ideas from the perspective of how do they spread how do they replicate what makes one idea more viral than another idea right but anything could be a mean like let's all show up at area 51 that's a meme that went viral for some reason that caught on that had some essence to it where everybody was like I'm gonna do it dude you guys lift we're pulling up to to the back gate or known as the Rachel gate closed question ten use on foot but they can't stop thirty of us I could definitely stop all of us there's nobody rating right now but there's certainly a lot of people a lot of traffic coming in and out of here so we got the department Public Safety on this side the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department on the other side and the military guys on the other side no new route are running though how do you know in Rada what is it it's Naruto you don't have to say it like that oh they're gonna grill me online if I say it like that Bluto and what is that from where where's the Naruto run from Naruto is it it's from Naruto it's an anime it's Japanese animations they're Naruto right to it what'd you say like this okay well okay oh and then one leg one leg I know beating step with you okay can you demonstrate the run for us or I can't okay yeah we're good all right the first official day of alien stock didn't really contribute to the explosive content the media outlets were all hoping for my name is Brian and I'm a producer for a large media company based out of that Manhattan what do you think I mean the media hype surrounding this we all as people in the media we there's more there's almost more media per capita here than any other event that I've been to it's crazy yeah at one point there was more cameras than people I thought I did I mean I didn't think was gonna be like a fire fest in Aereo I mean we thought that maybe people might get kind of drunken up or party enough that there might be some type of incident at the gate but since we've been here it's been pretty low-key it was really funny to me that like when we first went to the gate and like nobody was here like we were all like super intimidated kind of like walking up to that thing you know and now it's like you know everyone's so friendly the cops are waving you in almost like you're going on a Carnival Ride or something there was a third alien themed event happening down the road we heard they were better funded and wanted to see if they had drawn the crowds that we had all been promised [Music] so what brings you guys here today make money yeah take creativity to another level have you made much money B I mean is you've opened doors but have you sold a lot of stuff today I've sold a lot of stuff before we came here oh god we didn't for the crowds what do you got here get some alien poop yeah this was my wife's idea these are all geodes from our Jersey home mine in southern Colorado okay lady wanted to come by them all I'm like you want to buy all these deals she goes other geodes I'm like yeah it's not alien food she was a little disappointed what would she have done with all that alien I don't want to think about what she would do with all the alien food we are talking about the question the one question the main question are we alone in the universe that's really what we're asking I really didn't think there would be more people yeah and maybe there still will be I mean I think there's often a lot of confusion in the press about what events were really happening and the fact that millions of people responded to it is pretty amazing yeah and I think that shows that there's a real desire to know what's going on yeah this gentleman right over here very nice man he's selling geodes labeled as alien poop yeah do you think businesses like that do you think they're helping or they're hurting the cause I'd say generally hurting yeah why is that I would say generally anything that undermines the seriousness of the subject it makes it all too easy for for press to show up and and they can just focus on that guy no you can find the people who you know claim that they've they've visited Venus we're back at the Rachel gate at night this time everywhere we go there's always live streamers everybody's posting a YouTube it's pretty amazing how much media is going on where you guys from we're from vice media yeah seems like there's a lot of vloggers and live streamers out here and stuff like that yeah I feel like everybody here is a blogger and in the media and some kind of way yeah the fact that it's so condensed with creative minds is the mind blowing so it's Saturday morning officially day two of alien stock we're in an RV outside of the Rachel Gaeta to area 51 we spent the night out here because we had heard that there was gonna be a big raid at 3:00 a.m. but we woke up at 3 a.m. and there was nothing there so we just got word that the area 51 base camp where we were last night their main event has been cancelled tonight it's sort of the opposite of fire fest where they built everything but then there's not enough people with no apparent warning the killer whale grabs his feet and pulls him underwater for clothes time in it we're from Dallas Texas woke up Friday didn't have anything to do this weekend so just hopped on a plane and Canada's Nevada we've met some interesting characters so far I noticed there was like this gold ball of light that was coming up on my car bigger than a softball it's smaller than a basketball about this big and so I don't know what that was what brought you out here today partly promoting Roswell New Mexico Roswell was very opposed to the UFO festival 20 years ago now we know it's our bread and butter this will be a bread and butter event once they get the infighting settled down yeah it just feels so good to know that we have guests here to visit us is awesome and when was the last time something like this has come through rageous I think it was probably Will Smith's Independence Day I think it's a good event I've had a good time I know York and there was a couple other people that live here that were they didn't want this to happen and I understand it I really do because I like the peace and quiet out here - except for the sonic booms we get used to those on the final day of the festival we were finally able to secure some time with Connie to ask her some questions alongside several other national media publications your original plan was to have something kind of small kind of like on a smaller scale not ten thousand people again I didn't plan it it planned me the numbers were coming in that there were it could be five to twenty thousand people five to fifty thousand ten to seventy thousand nobody knew it wasn't going to not happen if I would have stood up and said yo don't come here Pia - come here anyway so I did my best to make sure that everybody was going to be taken care of what do you think of Maddy Roberts you have any ill will towards man aroma you know I said Maddy love I'm not an evil person I'm not gonna speak ugly you don't react to ugly with ugly because then it becomes nasty and what would you say to the people who are saying like oh this is ridiculous it didn't pan out that's okay because the people who showed up or what matters and you know the proof is in the pictures it's in the video we did it as a sunset on alien stock I realized this wasn't a fire fest for privileged Millennials where the butt of the joke the joke was on us the media who had followed sold and overhyped this event hoping we could all cash in on the misery of those who had followed a meme into the desert a lot of people came here for different reasons some people came to be with like-minded individuals some people came to storm or to sort of LARP everybody we met was having a good time nobody said that this sucked that it was underwhelming the only critique we heard was that there could have been more people but for the most part it was a really friendly crew of people who just wanted to hang out and have fun they are more lessons learned from this event than I can count I know you want to hear that I feel that it was overhyped I don't really feel that I think we were prepared for the worst if there is anything to take away from any respect of internet hives is that you really never know what to expect we live in an age where it is completely unpredictable because we have this instantaneous media and in a blink of an eye anything can happen before this event I had never heard of the term meme I've heard it obviously many many times now I still don't know exactly what it is and I really don't care [Music] oh thank god that's over

Channel: VICE

Views: 2,487,717

Rating: 4.6618552 out of 5

Keywords: ALIENS, rush area 51, see them aliens, naruto running, vice, journalism, documentary, videos, culture, interview, film, movies, underground, vice videos, lifestyle, independent, vice guide, exclusive, vice.com, world, documentaries, short films, docs, yt:cc=on, storm area 51, facebook event, viral, memes, connie west, area 51 event, media, news coverage, rachel nevada, matty roberts, fyre festival 2.0, alien, space, extra terrestrials, area 51 nevada, raid area 51, area 51 meme, storming area 51

Id: Tf5C9iroKAE

Length: 25min 30sec (1530 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 01 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

a bunch of weebs go hang out near area 51 in the desert.

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the end.