The campaign to “storm Area 51” was planned for September 20th, 2019, and after months of controversy, the organizers decided to set up a festival called “Alien Stock” in the middle of the desert instead, where all of the Area 51 enthusiasts could gather safely and legally.
Unluckily, locals in the small town of Rachel, Nevada weren't very excited about the idea of thousands of curiosity seekers descending on their neighborhood.
When the festival was announced, a warning was posted on the town’s website in response to the news, stating that residents would defend their property by force if they needed to, saying that “the situation could get ugly.”
The website voiced concerns that the event would attract crooks that sought to “capitalize on the chaos.”
Since the event was canceled, Nevada's website was updated with a celebratory post that said the party was being moved to Las Vegas and was canceled because of poor organization.
The town's website called the event Fyre Fest 2.0, a reference to the festival hosted by rapper Ja Rule and con artist Billy McFarland, that ended in a disaster when the organizers were not prepared for the event that they advertised.
There've been many other spin-off events as well, and while it's not clear if they'll be moving to Las Vegas along with Alien Stock, they weren't initially planned to take place in Rachel, yet in locations farther from the Area 51 site.
Though the official plan to storm the secret military base situated in the desert was just a joke, it seems that not everybody got the memo. According to The Mind Unleashed, two men have already been arrested for trespassing on the Nevada National Security Site, that is a government nuclear facility situated ten miles away from Area 51.
The men, Wilhelmus Jacob Sweep, 21, and Ties Granzie, 20, are Dutch YouTubers that had flown to the US to attend the event.
The Nye County Sheriff’s Office discovered the pair’s car parked three blocks inside the nuclear site. In the vehicle, police discovered a camera, a laptop, and a drone. It was noted that the YouTubers had already captured footage from inside the facility as well.
Police said that, though Granzier and Sweep don't understand English perfectly, they should've been able to recognize the “No Trespassing” signs all over the property.
If they're convicted, they could face a maximum sentence of six months in prison, a $500 fine, or even both, according to the US Department of Justice.
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