ROSWELL, N.M. – The City of Roswell will be hosting the 25th UFO Festival this Friday through Sunday after missing a year because of the pandemic. According to the city and event coordinators, the number of visitors could break the total record that was set in 2019.
The Roswell UFO Festival is set to begin Friday, July 2, the day after the state fully reopens. With the excitement of the return and the popularity of road trips right now, ticket sales have been brisk.
“We’re hoping that we have anywhere between 10 to 12,000 our UFO and research center indicates we will have record-breaking numbers,” Public Affairs Officer for the city, Juanita Jennings said, “Their numbers are already showing visitation close to 2019 numbers by which we love our ticket numbers are just under where we used to be and we’re hoping that we will be at or just above 2019 numbers.”
In 2019, the festival had between 13,000 to 14,000 visitors for the four-day event. Last year was supposed to be a celebration of the 25th UFO Fest but that had to wait until this year because of the pandemic. Another reason for the heightened interest this year — the recent government reports on UFO sightings.
“I think we see some true believers’ people who have been abducted people who have had an experience with extraterrestrial life and I think that sometimes along the anniversary the timing of the report couldn’t be better for us,” Jennings says.
The festival will be more spread out than in years past with events taking place across the city rather than just along the main street downtown. There will be a range of activities including the famous UFO parade where this year will be more interactive as the floats will allow visitors to be “abduct” by aliens and tour the city on them.
Also, new this year, the festival will be recapping all the day’s events and interviews with a 5 p.m. virtual broadcast. For more information on the festival, visit ufofestival.com.
