On Location: Roswell’s UFO Festival
Talk to Roswellians about whether or not they believe, and if they’ve been to the crash site or spotted a UFO themselves, and you’ll be met with a laugh and a shrug. The first question is sure to be turned back on you, and few of them have visited the crash site (where ever it really is). As for UFOs, they’re painted on every shop window and diner menu, and therefore so ubiquitous that seeing one in the sky would seem as commonplace as getting a tank of gas.
When an unidentified flying object crashed here 70 years ago, alien culture unapologetically became part of Roswell’s identity. Roswell now has the second largest UFO library in the world (the first is in the Vatican), and every year since 1995, Experiencers (or “Abductees”) and regular humanoids (“humans”) visit for a 4-day UFO Festival. This year, fifty thousand were expected — the same number of residents in this small town — and film crews from Travel Channel, Food Network, a pair from Snapchat, and our team were weaving through downtown and interviewing attendees about their pet’s alien costumes. Terry Richardson was snapping photos and looked to have some mission in mind.
The genesis of the festival was surprisingly unmotivated by extraterrestrial intrigue: former mayor Tom Jennings started it as a means for economic stimulus. It would be good for small businesses, he imagined, and a way for the community to collaborate on something positive.
Tom’s it’s-not-really-about-the-aliens vibe is consistent across town. The conversations you’ll overhear at Applebee’s are less about the 100+ abduction stories that are reported monthly around the world (according to the Mutual UFO Network) and more about an upcoming cheerleading competition and how the weather is finally cooling down (95 F in Roswell is a cold spell for this time of year).
As the festival enters its 22nd year, many of the little green men and space dioramas that occupy shop windows along Main Street are starting to show their age. Paint is peeling and the tin foil is loosing its luster. You wonder how long Roswell can hold on to this infamous unsolved mystery as a means for economic stimulus.
But you also get the sense Roswellians don’t really care. High school football will still happen on Friday nights, swimming holes will still be a respite to the heat. The conspiracy that was born in ’47 continues to give gift of tourism to a town “200 miles from any speciality store or concert,” we were told by Timothy, the first Airbnb host in town.
Being from a small town myself, I’m proud of Roswell — both for how much they care and how much they don’t. It’s easy to look upon a place with more pizza places than fresh juice shops and peg it as one thing as a means to understand it. But humans* are complex and interesting no matter where you find them. Roswell no different.
* Unless we actually did meet aliens, in which case I can say Mars Attacks is completely inaccurate and aliens are much nicer.
