Fountain Hills’ annual International UFO Congress has become the Barrett-Jackson of the flying saucer set. Are you ready to believe?
If the words “UFO convention” immediately bring to mind a dank ballroom full of off-the-fringe oddballs arguing Area 51 conspiracy theories, top extraterrestrial abductions and best shaman stone frequencies, hold on to your tin hat.
It may be surprising – disappointing, even – to learn the annual International UFO Congress, now in its 24th year and its fifth in Arizona, has grown into a respectable, middle-of-the-road convention. Last year’s five-day event drew more than 2,500 attendees, landing it in Guinness World Records as the world’s largest UFO convention, and sparked a statewide tourism incentive after a study showed Arizona has the highest number of UFO sightings per capita (see sidebar).
This year’s conference, held February 18-22 at the We-Ko-Pa Resort & Conference Center, is being embraced as an economy-booster by a metropolis that’s always welcomed a little green, whether or not it comes from little green men.
“Over the years, the tone has changed,” says Alejandro Rojas, an editor for OpenMinds.tv, Tempe-based sponsor of the event, and convention emcee. “You would expect, when you go to a UFO conference, to walk into a crowd of wacky people. But it’s more professional now. You have a lot of retirees – older, credible people who are just interested in this topic and wanting to get more information. It’s not a bunch of kids wearing silly outfits.”
It’s a trade show, basically – albeit one with a vendor list heavy on crystal makers, UFOlogy groups and artists specializing in fantastic E.T. sculptures.
“Essentially it’s become a cottage industry for people who are peripherally related to the UFO community to flog their new book or DVD,” says Ben Radford, a scientific paranormal investigator who works for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and who’s attended his share of UFO conventions. “That can range from people who are sincere, who genuinely believe that UFOs exist, to con men.”
Ben Hansen, star of the SyFy channel’s Fact or Faked (now on hiatus following two seasons), is hosting a Friday night stargazing session during the event. He freely admits that the Congress, which he’s been appearing at for the past six years, has been a cash cow for his side business, Night Optics USA, which specializes in night vision equipment used heavily by the UFO sky-watching community.
“It does pretty well when I go to these events, because there are a lot of people who are seeing really unusual objects in the sky but have no way to record them,” he says. It can be a tricky clientele to deal with. “Unfortunately our industry does attract a high percentage of mentally unhealthy people,” Hansen admits. “You can go to any UFO conference and find people who say they’ve mothered 12 hybrid-alien children.”
Joe Nickell, the 70-year-old patriarch of the scientific skeptics movement who currently writes for Skeptical Inquirer magazine, is a bit more charitable in his description of the UFO convention crowd. “They tend to be what are called fantasy-prone personalities,” he says. “They’re quite sane, they’re quite normal, but they’re at the extreme end of the highly imaginative spectrum.”
The highlight of this year’s event will likely be the reunion of reclusive Area 51 whistleblower Bob Lazar and George Knapp, the journalist who first reported Lazar’s story of seeing extraterrestrial spacecraft at the hidden military location.
Nickell takes issue with the media’s tendency to dismiss UFO gatherings as ditzy doings. “It’s not just some kind of pop culture silliness,” he says. “It’s deeper than that. It’s almost like a religious convention, or a political convention, where true believers get together and reinforce each other’s beliefs.”
Rojas says that’s why the event is spread out over five days. “It’s a very social event,” he says. “The whole hotel is full of people who are like-minded, so we make sure they have ample time to interact not only with the speakers but with each other. They have so much to talk about.”
Top 5 UFO States
(*sightings per 100,000 residents)
Arizona: 4.05
Vermont: 4.02
Maine: 3.87
Colorado: 3.36
New Hampshire: 3.19
source: The Mutual UFO Network, 2013 data
