Area 51: The joke about the mysterious military base that they say would become a "humanitarian disaster"

In the remote Lincoln County of southern Nevada, surrounded by arid landscapes and dusty roads, the towns of Rachel and Hiko, which have only 173 inhabitants, could go completely unnoticed.

However, what makes them unique is their proximity to a US Air Force base, commonly known as Zone 51.

The mysterious field of military evidence, long badociated with conspiracy theories about extraterrestrial visitors, has consolidated its place in foreign folklore.

In these isolated towns, starting September 19, thousands of people are expected to gather for two festivals, Alienstock and Storm Area 51 Basecamp.

Unlike most large-scale festivals, these events are the result of a joke published on Facebook last June.

And after a whirlwind after these months, the person behind this joke now fears that his idea will end as a "humanitarian disaster".

In June, Matty Roberts, a 20-year-old student from Bakersfield, California, posted a joke on Facebook.

The name: "Enter zone 51, you can not stop us all."

The plan, as its name indicates, was to meet at the base in sufficient quantities to avoid security.

Once inside the institution, the supposed secrets that hide it – extraterrestrial technology and government clandestine investigation – could finally be revealed to the public.

"Let's see the extraterrestrials", said lightly the description of the event.

A few days after its launch, the event has become a viral sensation that has made headlines around the world.

"I posted the Area 51 event on Facebook around 27:00 on June 27. It was a joke from the beginning." There was a ton of attention from nowhere and it was a good thing. was incredible, "Roberts told the BBC.

At present, more than 3.5 million people have expressed interest in attending the event on September 20th.

Roberts thinks there is a "good group of people who take it seriously".

In fact, one of them is real estate investor Art Frasik (Ohio), 33, who badured the BBC that he and others were determined to enter the building to "denounce the discovery of foreigners ".

"I am going to Area 51 because our taxpayers are funding this facility and after 70 years of hiding extraterrestrial technology in the world, we have the right to see it," he wrote in a Facebook post.

Two men, a Youtuber and his friend, both Dutch, have already been arrested in a restricted area near the base of Area 51.

Accused of raiding Tuesday, Ties Granzier, 20, and Govert Sweep, 21, told the police that they "wanted to see the facilities."

Others have formulated similar threats to enter the base, but with memes, their severity is difficult to determine.

The US Air Force, on the other hand, takes these threats seriously.

Laura McAndrews, her spokeswoman, told the BBC that "any attempt to illegally access military installations or military training areas is dangerous."

Roberts echoed this warning and said that he does not want anyone to be hurt.

After the Facebook event became viral, FBI agents knocked on his door to question his intentions.

Roberts badured the agents that "he was not building bombs or anything crazy."

But what began as "his odd idea for a meme page" has become uncontrollable.

For the US Air Force and the counties of Lincoln and Nye, intruders from Area 51 could be the least of their worries.

In particular, the two festivals pose major security and infrastructure problems.

Alienstock, organized by the Little A Hotel & The Inn at Rachel, and Storm Area 51 Basecamp, held at the Alien Research Center in Hiko, have been licensed by Lincoln County.

In preparation, the county has already signed an emergency declaration. Nobody knows for sure how many people will participate, but the numbers range from 5,000 to 50,000.

The visiting zone 51 has for decades been a pilgrimage route for extraterrestrial conspiracy theorists.

Located adjacent to Groom Lake, the base was created in the 1950s to serve as a test center for an American spy plane, the Lockheed U-2.

But according to Area 51 expert Glenn Campbell, the facility was not publicly badociated with aliens and UFOs until the 1980s.

It was at that time that physicist Bob Lazar went on to a television channel in Las Vegas and, in an interview, said that he had been hired to perform the "reverse engineering "of an extraterrestrial spacecraft in a facility near Area 51.

"With her announcement, thousands of conspiracy theories were born," says Annie Jacobson, who wrote a bestseller about this place at the BBC.

But since the base is a clbadified military facility, nobody knows what is going on right now.

His goal has always been "to advance military science and technology faster and further than any other foreign power in the world," said Jacobson.

But his veil of secrecy has led others to different conclusions.

"The base is still a black box that nobody can enter, so it has become a sort of Rorschach test for what you want to believe," said Campbell, referring to a psychodiagnostic technique that lends itself to ambiguous interpretations. . .