The idea was simple — storm Area 51.
Creator Matty Roberts had a vision for social media participants: Hold an alien festival in the middle of nowhere in Nevada. The event came as a response to a viral, tongue-in-cheek Facebook event that charged people to storm Area 51 to find out the truth of what’s going on there.
The event was scheduled to be held on Sept. 20. But now, just about a week out from the event, Roberts has pulled out, comparing Alienstock — yes, that’s a direct comparison to Woodstock — to the Fyre Festival, another viral event that went crazy across social media but had little to no organization and became the subject of two documentaries earlier this year.
Roberts has pulled his name from the event, even though the motel scheduled to host the event is still on board.
He released a statement that pulled the plug on the event Monday, according to News 3 Las Vegas.
“Due to lack of infrastructure, poor planning, risk management and blatant disregard for the safety of the expected 10,000+ AlienStock attendees, we decided to pull the plug on the festival.”
“There’s no safety or security that can really be promised,” Roberts told The Washington Post, calling it a “humanitarian disaster.”
“I didn’t feel comfortable with inviting even my friends and family out to this event, let alone these thousands of strangers.”
Roberts was on board with hosting the event until organizer Frank DiMaggio asked him some more difficult questions about organizing an event.
And it’s caused somewhat of a scandal. Little A’Le’Inn proprietor Connie West has accused Roberts of leaving her high and dry after she reportedly set up everything for the event. But Roberts contests that there is no proof that the event was organized properly.
Now, it looks like West plans to run the event herself.
“She’s saying they’re coming anyway,” DiMaggio said. “I really hope that they’re not.”
To make matters worse, TMZ reports that DiMaggio and Roberts were approached by FBI agents, who inquired about what the two founders planned to have happen at the event.
“They asked me a laundry list of questions,” Roberts told USA Today. “Basically, their main concerns were about anybody that was sending death threats that were actually credible and anybody that was actually trying to radicalize this thing. People that think it’s legitimately serious — that we’re actually going to show up and storm the base. People who are planning to bring guns and things. There’s been a few of those people pop up, so I’ve just sent them to the FBI. I don’t want any of that.”
Since that time, the location of the event has moved from Area 51 to the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center.