If you haven’t made your plans to attend Storm Area 51, you probably shouldn’t bother — as the organizers have moved the event 150 miles away to Las Vegas.
We are now technically within 24 hours of Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us, the Facebook prank event to which now two million people are allegedly “Going.” A negligible percentage of these people might go, but the original organizers won’t. They’ve canceled the event in favor of a far safer and more conventional meetup in Las Vegas called Alienstock, but local officials, and of course the U.S. government, continue to worry about throngs of conspiracy theorist mobbing the rural Nevada military base that supposedly alien bodies and their respective spacecraft.
“The United States Air Force is aware of the Facebook post," Air Force spokesperson Laura McAndrews told ABC 7 in July when the prank started picking up steam. "The Nevada Test and Training Range is an area where the Air Force tests and trains combat aircraft. As a matter of practice, we do not discuss specific security measures, but any attempt to illegally access military installations or military training areas is dangerous."
This being a desert area, the weather is also potentially dangerous. While Accuweather currently predicts “Plenty of sunshine, nice” temperatures in the high 70s and low 80s, extreme storms are always a possibility. And storms might be the least of the alien enthusiasts’ worries.
“More people will get bitten by snakes than the Air Force arresting them or the sheriff arresting them, so they've got to really be cognizant and think about what they're doing," Alien Research Center owner George Harris told ABC 7, via AccuWeather,
Rachel, Nevada’s Little A'Le'Inn is still planning their own little festival near Area 51, also called Alienstock, and KRON 4 reports the original organizers have sent them a cease and desist letter over it. Which, frankly they should be thanking the Little A'Le'Inn for providing a safe and structured option, but apparently that concept is alien to them.
Related: Nevada Braces For Invasion of Alien Enthusiasts As ‘Storm Area 51’ Event Approaches [SFist]
Image: Facebook