Post by JoannaL on Jan 25, 2022 0:28:22 GMT -5
Roswell Plans 75th Anniversary UFO Festival
The planning committee – made up of organizers, volunteers, accommodation managers, etc. – for the 75th anniversary of Roswell’s 1947 UFO crash has been meeting since August of last year.
Now, Juanita Jennings, Roswell Public Affairs Director, has promised the first updates will be posted online. “Each month we’ll have a video, reminiscing and taking us back to 1947, to celebrate everything that happened that year and of course, the ‘Incident.’” she said.
Mayor Dennis Kintigh is, of course, looking at the broader picture, i.e., tourism. “We have a brand name that you couldn’t buy for billions of dollars,” he insisted. “People around the world know of Roswell. They know we exist, they know we are here. That in itself is a beginning. We want people to do more than just acknowledge it, but to come here and experience that and the complexity of this community.” Ideally, he continued, there would be ticket packages for tourists and locals that encourage them to not only visit all museums, the planetarium, other attractions and local shops, but to stay at least one night in town. This would be financially beneficial to not only the attractions, but to local motels, RV parks, restaurants and others in the hospitality business.
“The whole city needs to participate in whatever way they can. There are several things that we can’t release yet because the details have not been completely worked out, really exciting things. We will be able to release that pretty soon,” added Molly Boyles, MainStreet Roswell board vice president and spokesperson. “A lot of people have Roswell on their bucket list from all over the world, not just from the U.S. To be able to celebrate 75 years of the ‘Incident,’ I think, is very important – that we use that to our advantage for our economy, long-term, not just for one weekend.”
In addition to numerous events, the July 1-3 celebration will include lectures by such notables as renowned UFO researcher Don Schmitt and local UFO aficionado Dennis Balthaser.
_______
Sometime between mid-June and early July of 1947, “something” crashed on a ranch near Corona, New Mexico, and on July 8, the Roswell Army Air Field issued a press release which read as follows: “The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc through the cooperation of one of the local ranchers and the sheriff’s office of Chaves County.”
The following day, the Roswell Daily Record ran the story of the crash and in short order, the government changed its story and claimed the disc was nothing more than a weather balloon. Many, however, did not believe the revised report and the rest, as they say, is history.
_______
For periodic updates, see UFO Festival 2022 or Facebook.
Sources: Christina Stock, The Roswell Daily Record, January 20, 2022; Roswell Chamber of Commerce; Witness to Roswell, 75th Anniversary Edition: Unmasking the Government's Biggest Cover-up by Thomas J. Carey and Donald R. Schmitt; and Golden Lab Bookshop.
