Las Vegas - The largest thing Matty Roberts had ever
organised was a rave in his hometown of Bakersfield, California. It
featured a few local bands and a couple of DJs and drew about 350
people.
He was a community college student with plans to transfer to a
four-year school and get a degree in engineering. He worked at a vape
shop. Fun for him was playing World of Warcraft at his house.
That was 10 months ago - ancient history for the 21-year-old at the
centre of the weirdest internet phenomenon of the summer, a plan to
organise a mass raid September 20 on Area 51, the top-secret Nevada
military base that has long been fodder for conspiracy theories about
aliens and UFOs.
The plan - though it could barely be called that - quickly fell apart
after Roberts got a visit from the FBI, and the Air Force issued a
statement warning people to stay away. It eventually morphed into a
far more conventional event, an outdoor concert called Alienstock.
Stagehands spent Wednesday setting up for the September 19 event at
the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center as Roberts sat on a white couch
and reflected on how tossing a joke into the social media world
changed his life.
"I sparked a movement while I was bored at 2 am," he said.
He had been inspired by a post that proposed stealing all of
Minnesota's 10,000 lakes. Roberts wanted to try and top it - to marry
the perfect blend of absurdity with pop culture.
An idea hit. Quickly, he created a Facebook page that he titled
"Storm Area 51: They Can't Stop All of Us."
Then he went to sleep.
When he awoke that morning of June 27, it went just as he thought. He
noticed he'd gotten a few dozen likes. Some funny memes were posted.
Same with the next day too. He figured it had hit its peak.
Then, on July 1, he was driving to work at the vape shop when his
notifications began buzzing on his phone. Over and over to the point
he needed to turn them off. His post suddenly had 600 likes. Then
3 000.
People were RSVPing too, saying they believed Roberts had stumbled
upon an ingenious idea to uncover rumored secrets of alien autopsies
and spaceships stored in hangers on the military base.
One had suggested the storming crowd adopt the forward-leaning
running style used by an anime ninja named Naruto Uzumaki to increase
speed and outpace security. Roberts doubted Naruto-style would help
anybody, least of all him.
"I'm not very fast," he said. "I'm not a very good runner in
general."
Eventually the number of RSVPs surpassed a million. "I don't remember
the exact date, but I remember it was at 11 p.m. in mid-July. It was
a dumpster fire."
The total has since eclipsed 2 million.
Roberts, who soon realised his little joke might not be so funny,
decided he'd better go out to the small town of Rachel - population
58 - which is a popular site for Area 51 aficionados who often stay
at the town's famous Little A'Le'Inn.
He already knew storming the base was a bad idea and was trying to
figure out what to do instead. Looking around, he thought it could be
a good place to have a concert under the stars.
So he and a friend came up with Alienstock, initially planning to
hold it in Rachel.
They teamed up with Frank DiMaggio, a local promoter in Las Vegas,
and got the owners of the inn on board with the plan. Lincoln County
issued the necessary permits. But the town was also a little freaked
out.
"Law enforcement will be overwhelmed and local residents will step up
to protect their property," said a post on the city website. "It will
get ugly."
The county commissioners voted to declare a state of emergency if
things got out of hand.
Roberts said he was getting concerned about the ability to respond to
emergencies. He said that as officials grew uncomfortable with the
event, he and DiMaggio decided to take Alienstock to a more
appropriate place: Las Vegas.
Cody Theising, manager at the Little A'Le'Inn, said their worries
were unfounded. Permits had been approved, parking and camping sites
were being sold as needed, and a Las Vegas-based ambulance company
had been contracted to provide medical tents and vehicles.
Undeterred, Theising said he has lined up his own musical acts in
Rachel for September 19-22. Separately, a UFO convention is being
held in Hiko, about 45 minutes away.
Officials are still figuring a crowd will show up in Rachel. It could
be 30,000 people, or it could be 10,000. Nobody knows.
Roberts and others believe a few true believers will try to storm
Area 51 anyway. Roberts said he has urged people not to, through
interviews and social media. "Be prepared to be arrested," he said.
Local officials in Rachel are also urging people not to try it.
Theising said Roberts sold out for money.
Roberts and DiMaggio said the owners of the Little A'Le'Inn are
capitalising on using the Alienstock name _ even though they don't
own the rights to it. Roberts said he is making almost no money on
the event.
Roberts said the whole series of events encouraged but also slightly
disillusioned him. He said he is now rethinking his college major and
may try for a marketing degree. He said he used to be timid about
being in front of the camera, but all of the media interviews have
forced him to get more comfortable with that.
Roberts also said he has begun to re-evaluate his feelings on the
existence of extraterrestrial life. He said he hadn't thought too
much about the topic, but in recent months after talking with UFO
experts, he's begun to reconsider it.
But he said he's pretty sure of one thing: If anyone tries to
actually storm Area 51, they're going to get arrested. The US Air
Force, which operates Area 51, has also issued warnings to anyone
thinking about trying to get on the base without authorisation.
Even if someone did get past security - beyond doubtful - Roberts
doesn't think they'd find aliens or spaceships.
"Just a landing strip, some airplanes and a few buildings," he said.
"That's about it."