The Area 51 festival ends in Nevada; The earthlings return home

Festivals are over and earthlings from around the world have returned home on Sunday after a camping and party weekend in the dusty desert of Nevada and trekking to the distant gates of Area 51, a US military base hitherto top -secrete who has long been at the center of extraterrestrial traditions of space. .

They left in peace, announced Sunday officials and the host of the festival "Alienstock" free.

Visitors from France, Russia, Germany, Peru, Sweden, Australia and many US states – many flying cameras – responded to an Internet message published in June, suggesting that if enough people were hurrying to a military base to "see strangers" at 3 am 20, the authorities could not stop everyone.

More than 2 million Facebook users have expressed interest, but only a few thousand have finally visited the small desert town of Rachel, Nevada, which has about 50 inhabitants, more than two hours away. road north of Las Vegas.

Rachel's campers and festival-goers peaked at about 3,000 on Friday, said Eric Holt, the Lincoln County official who has planned an influx of at least 30,000 fears.

A few hundred other people camped and attended a night of an abbreviated festival located in Hiko, about 40 km away, and populated by 120 inhabitants.

"It seems like a lot of good people are resting and having fun," said Dave Wells, 56-year-old stonemason and festival researcher in Cincinnati, wearing a green and shiny festival t-shirt. , who filmed Saturday. to Rachel.

Has anyone found extraterrestrials or UFOs? (As if someone could really say among the masked and costumed beings posing for photos and frolicking in the desert.)

"We did not do it," said Connie West, host of the "Alienstock" festival who became owner of The Little A'Le'Inn, owner of the 10-room motel and cafe that became the center of the universe in search of extraterrestrials.

"But we found peace. And friendship, "she said on Sunday as campers packed their bags and volunteers began to clean up.

Another event, called "Area 51 Basecamp" in the Alien Research Center gift shop in Hiko, was not successful either.

The organizers ended their second concert Saturday after attracting about 500 ticket buyers for a Friday show. Preparations had been prepared for 5,000 people.

Authorities said more than 1,000 people visited the doors of Area 51 near Rachel on Thursday and Friday. Officials did not report Saturday numbers. Holt said the Lincoln County sheriff's deputies, on the public side, were sent home early Sunday.

In the end, no one "stormed" area 51, although deputies from rural Nye County resorted to "heated warnings" to disperse up to 200 people gathered before the attack. Dawn, Friday, near the remarkably green "Center 51 extraterrestrials" of the valley of Amargosa. , Said Sheriff Sharon Wehrly. Nobody was arrested.

County authorities have refused to allow a festival on this site, located about 90 minutes drive west of Las Vegas.

In Lincoln County, six people were arrested over the weekend for offenses, mainly under the spotlight and two-door cameras at the military base and under the watchful eye of sheriff deputies from all over of the world, in Nevada.

Sheriff Kerry Lee said he observed a score of people pretending to rush before dawn on Saturday, heading to a door outside Rachel's base, before she was seated. 39; immobilized.

Two men were arrested by military security officers on the perimeter of Nevada's vast testing and training area, an area almost twice the size of Delaware, where the US Air Force conducts air combat, bombing and stealth aircraft. The men were handed over to the sheriff's deputies and charged with trespassing, said Lee, and their vehicle was impounded.

Holt said three seriously injured people during weekend turnovers had been sent to hospitals in Las Vegas and St. George, Utah. Motorists involved in collisions that killed two cows on the outdoor shooting range escaped serious injury.

In a festival clinic in Rachel, a man was treated Friday for dehydration and a woman early Sunday for a drug-related issue.

"I will call it a success on our side. That's because we took the lead, "said Varlin Higbee, a breeder and commissioner for Lincoln County, who signed an emergency declaration earlier this month.

Authorities feared that unruly crowds would flood water, electricity, food, fuel, the Internet and telephony in a county of 5,200 people covering an area the size of Massachusetts.

Higbee said commissioners who have allocated $ 250,000 in emergency funds to prepare for trouble could take legal action to recover the costs.

"Think about it," said Higbee. "Here is an illegal event, supporting illegal activity – storming the door.We do not know what we are going to do at this point."

He compared the initial Internet post to an incitement to violence.

Matty Roberts, a 20-year-old from Bakersfield, Calif., Acknowledged that his "Area 51 Storm" message on Facebook in June was a hoax.

But he promoted the events to Rachel before breaking up earlier this month with West.

He said Sunday that Lincoln County officials did not have to spend money and could have simply prevented events in Rachel and Hiko from refusing permits, as Nye County did in the Valley of Amargosa.

Roberts hosted an event Thursday night at an outdoor venue in downtown Las Vegas, also using the name "Alienstock". He said he wanted to use the brand name and do it on tour to reach people who could not go to Nevada.

"That's pretty much the plan for me," he said. "It's been a ton of fun."

West, to Rachel, said she was ready to organize her festival next year.

"As well as it turned out? Why the hell not? She says.