The Area 51 Raid came and went. And to many people’s surprise, it was an extremely peaceful gathering. Around 5,000 people decked out in alien gear and holding signs reading things like “CLAP ALIEN CHEEKS” showed up to the Alienstock Music Festival in Rachel, Nevada, and around 100 showed up to the actual gates of the secretive military compound, where they mainly just stood around and posed for photos with police and military personnel. Everyone was all smiles.
There was no horde of people storming the gates in a Naruto run. Only seven arrests were reported from the site of Alienstock — not from Area 51 itself. For most attendees, it was a good time with fire memes and a cool example of the power of the internet to bring people together in a generally positive way — nothing more.
But to this elderly woman, it was more. A lot more. She wasn’t there to laugh at memes and make friends. She was genuinely determined to “see them aliens” and by God, of all the people there, she was the only one who went for it.