The “Storm Area 51” event came and went with little fanfare on Friday, with only a few dozen people showing up at the remote, secret Nevada test site, Yahoo News reports. A conflicting report from CP24 says that the number was closer to 1,500. Despite the facts that no one saw any (real) aliens and that there wasn’t a mass effort to storm a military base, it seems as if the few who showed up had a good time.
A few months ago, an internet jokester created the “Storm Area 51” event on Facebook, suggesting that thousands of people show up to the military facility where alien spacecraft and even actual aliens are rumored to be held and try to breach it en masse . The guards couldn’t possibly shoot all of them, the jokester said, and once the survivors got past the guards, the attendees would see “some of them aliens.”
It was all a joke, of course, but the joke took on a life of its own. Soon, hundreds of thousands of people had signed up for the event. As reported by The Inquisitr , “signed up” meant they clicked “Going” on the Facebook event. Obviously the overwhelming majority signed up as a joke, but with no way of being able to tell how many people were actually coming, the event caused headaches for the military, for the town nearest to the secret base, and for law enforcement in the region.
The concerns of the military were that civilians would try to breach a secure military facility, something that could result in gunfire and blood shed. The town and local law enforcement were concerned that thousands of people could show up in a remote locality, hundreds of miles from the nearest gas station, leaving them stranded and without access to food and water, thereby creating a humanitarian crisis.
However, when the day finally came, it turned out to be much ado about not a lot. Comparatively few (either a few dozen or about 1,500, depending on conflicting reports) showed up, and fewer still made any real attempt to breach the facility. One woman ducked under a gate and was detained and released — and that’s about it.
A group of people and law enforcement at the back gate of Area 51 near 3 am. #area51 #StormArea51 pic.twitter.com/pMz90zRtyJ
— Mick Akers (@mickakers) September 20, 2019
That’s not to say that those who turned up didn’t have a good time. Some attendees wore alien suits or tinfoil hats. One held a sign that read, “Save ET from the government.”
What a time to be alive. ?? #StormArea51 pic.twitter.com/uew6LJHkEE
— El Gatito (@ElGatitoSequeci) September 20, 2019
People are dumb and actually participating in the #StormArea51 event… pic.twitter.com/g0fMIVP6Kv
— Roy White III (@RDubThree) September 20, 2019
One attendee, who described himself as a YouTuber named Atozy called it a “once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
“A bunch of random people in weird costumes standing outside of a government base, why would you want to miss that?” Atozy said.
Sgt. Orlando Guerra of the Nevada Department of Public Safety Investigation Division waved off suggestions that the event would create a humanitarian and law enforcement crisis.
“They’re just here to see what’s going on. They’re here to have fun,” he said.
