In 2019, a joke Facebook event titled "Storm Area 51" went viral, attracting millions of RSVPs and widespread concerns that a massive crowd would try to breach the secretive U.S. government facility. But the actual event turned out to be completely different.
Wikimedia CommonsWhat started out as a Facebook joke became a viral sensation and a real-life gathering outside of Area 51.
If you were on social media during the summer of 2019, you might remember a joke about storming Area 51, the U.S. Air Force facility where the government has long been rumored to hide evidence of aliens.
During the joke’s lifespan, social media users discussed how to get into the secretive Nevada desert base, or what they would do with their new alien friends after liberating them from their supposed imprisonment. Meanwhile, the U.S. military, government agencies, and other authorities monitored the situation to make sure it didn’t turn into an actual raid.
Before long, Storm Area 51, which began as a joke Facebook event, reached the mainstream. Even brands like Bud Light got in on the joke, releasing a special edition alien-themed beer as the actual event approached.
But what really happened six years ago in the Nevada desert? Here’s the true story behind Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us.
But First, Why Storm Area 51?
Area 51 appears in countless modern American conspiracy theories.
If you ask the government, the site is part of a huge complex of U.S. military installations, with restricted airspace above it. If you ask conspiracy theorists, it’s home to extraterrestrial life and related information about aliens and UFOs that the government is keeping secret from its citizens.
The conspiracy fervor is not helped by the site being highly classified and off-limits to the public, surrounded by gates, fences, and signs warning people to turn around, that access to the region will not be granted.
Wikimedia CommonsA satellite image of Area 51 in the Nevada desert.
Established in 1955, the site was home to the U.S. military’s development of aircrafts and related technologies throughout the Cold War. But over the decades, speculation has grown about the site’s “true” uses.
The theories about Area 51 really took off in the 1980s, especially after a “whistleblower” named Bob Lazar claimed that he had been hired by the government to reverse-engineer an alien spacecraft that had fallen to Earth. Before long, conspiracy theorists began speculating that the military site was a place where UFOs were analyzed and aliens were imprisoned or dissected.
It wasn’t until 2013 that the government finally confirmed the site’s existence, acknowledging that the secretive U.S. military site had been used during the development and testing of U-2 aircrafts.
Despite this confirmation from the government and a seemingly reasonable description of the site, theories about Area 51 persist to this day.
How “Storm Area 51” Began As A Simple Joke Event On Facebook
The story of Storm Area 51 begins on June 27, 2019, when a college student named Matty Roberts created an event on Facebook. Titled “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us,” the event jokingly encouraged social media users to team up and raid the site to look for signs of extraterrestrial life.
“If we Naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets,” Matty Roberts wrote on the event post. “Let’s see them aliens.”
RedditThe Facebook event that Matty Roberts posted in June 2019.
Roberts was inspired to post the joke event after listening to an episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast where Rogan spoke with Bob Lazar, still infamous as a “UFO truther,” and filmmaker/ufologist Jeremy Corbell. During the episode, they naturally spoke about Area 51 conspiracy theories.
When Roberts scheduled the Facebook event, he arbitrarily set it for Sept. 20, 2019. It initially got about 40 RSVPs, nothing too crazy.
But then, within hours, the post blew up, garnering thousands more RSVPs, later reaching more than 1 million in a matter of days. The viral post would eventually get over 2 million RSVPs from around the world, Vox reported. Roberts was soon visited by the FBI, who wanted to confirm that he wasn’t actually planning a violent raid on the U.S. government facility.
Storm Area 51 Picks Up Steam — And Legitimacy
Thanks to other social media like TikTok, Reddit, and Twitter, Matty Roberts’ joke Facebook event took over the internet during the summer of 2019.
Some posted memes about making friends with the aliens they planned to rescue from a supposed prison. Others posted jokes about what tactics would be best when gaining access to the restricted site.
Wikimedia CommonsA Storm Area 51 attendee poses next to warning signs outside of the facility.
It was generally agreed upon that running like the Japanese anime character Naruto, where you bend your torso forward with your arms straight behind your back, was the most effective way to storm the facility.
As the joke was picking up steam in July 2019, the U.S. government made an official statement on the matter, saying, “[Area 51] is an open training range for the U.S. Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces.”
The FBI also monitored the situation for any legitimate safety or security threats that arose, and the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily placed additional flight restrictions in the region surrounding Area 51.
However, as the event attracted more and more attention, Matty Roberts had something to reckon with: Were people really going to show up to the middle of the Nevada desert on a random September day?
Utilizing his moment in the spotlight, Roberts teamed up with a business owner in a town local to Area 51 (well, as local as you can get for the middle of nowhere), to put together a legitimate event in the desert.
Roberts and Connie West, the operator of the Little A’Le’Inn hotel in Rachel, Nevada, put together a music festival set for the weekend of the Area 51 raid called Alienstock (a play on the famous Woodstock festival).
Wikimedia CommonsInitially, Roberts teamed up with West to put on Alienstock.
However, some expressed concerns about whether an event like this could run safely and smoothly. First off, Rachel was a very small town that was unequipped for the tens of thousands of people who were expected to attend the event. Another nearby town, Hiko, was also very small.
There were limited hotels and restaurants in the area, and it wasn’t clear if there would be enough water, tents, and infrastructure to support the visitors. A BBC article published before the festival called Alienstock a “possible humanitarian disaster,” especially since a separate festival, Storm Area 51 Basecamp, had also been planned in the area during the same time.
Just nine days before Alienstock was set to begin, Roberts backed out of the festival, citing similar safety concerns. He opted to attend a sponsored dance party instead, put together in Las Vegas by Budweiser.
West, however, had already spent thousands of dollars in preparation for the event. She decided that Alienstock would go on. The other nearby music festival in Hiko, Storm Area 51 Basecamp, would go on as well.
Turns Out, They Can Stop All Of Us
Wikimedia CommonsOnly a couple thousand people actually showed up to the events near Area 51.
As the date of Storm Area 51 approached, the towns of Rachel and Hiko prepared to receive tens of thousands of visitors, or perhaps more. Guards at Area 51 prepared for people to camp outside the facility’s gates.
But despite the large number of people who made jokes about the Area 51 raid online, not many people wanted to make that dream a reality.
Though 2 million people RSVP’d to Storm Area 51 on Facebook, only a couple thousand people actually showed up to the festival events in the desert. The highest peak was reported to be just 3,000. An even smaller number of people went near the gates of Area 51, about 150 total.
Those who made it to the actual Area 51 entrance did not make an attempt to storm the facility. Only about seven arrests were made during the celebrations, most of which had to do with public urination and indecent exposure. Still, authorities stood by the gates just in case.
Only one person attempted to breach Area 51’s entrance, but they were stopped and received a warning. Alas, Naruto running was not successful.
By all accounts, the music festivals in both Rachel and Hiko were mostly peaceful. West thought Alienstock, now technically renamed to Alien-Stock after the departure of Roberts, was a success, all things considered.
“I’m proud of me,” West told Vox back in 2019. “I’ve never been to a festival in my life, and hell, I pulled it off.”
Wikimedia CommonsThe band Wily Savage performing at Alien-Stock.
Originally, 20 bands had signed up to perform at Alien-Stock, but only one showed up (however, there were also DJ sets). Many of the attendees were social media influencers looking to capitalize on one of the biggest memes of the year, along with some journalists and conspiracy theorists.
While West saw her event as a success, the man in charge of the Storm Area 51 Basecamp festival, Keith Wright, saw his event as a failure and ended it early due to low attendance. Still, Storm Area 51 is believed to have brought Lincoln County the largest number of visitors to the region at one time.
All in all, the event wasn’t the total disaster that people feared it could have been. The biggest disappointment for attendees might have simply been that there were no reports of UFOs or extraterrestrials while they were there.
The Aftermath Included Lawsuits, But Not Regarding Trespassing
Wikimedia CommonsLincoln County, Nevada deputies guarding Area 51 during the festival celebrations.
After Roberts left the Alienstock operation, allegedly taking $70,000 with him that was meant to go toward the festival, he sent West a cease-and-desist letter when she decided to continue on with the event.
The letter warned her not to use the name “Alienstock” for the event or the promotion of the festival. West simply changed the name from “Alienstock” to “Alien-Stock” and reportedly ignored the letter at the time.
However, after the event was over, West filed a lawsuit against Roberts and his associates for breaching agreements in organizing and financing the festival, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Seeking relief in excess of $50,000, the lawsuit also alleged that Roberts and his team wrongly used the Alienstock name to promote a separate event in Las Vegas and published defamatory statements about West.
Wikimedia CommonsNo one successfully “stormed” Area 51, and there were no reports of extraterrestrials during the celebrations.
In May 2021, the lawsuit was reported to have reached a tentative settlement. The terms of this settlement were “to be kept confidential,” according to court records. However, years later, in July 2025, it was reported that Connie West earned a whopping $3.4 million from the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, many parody copycat “raids” on places like the Vatican have been proposed, but none have gone quite as viral as Storm Area 51.
Interestingly, some other events that began as memes have come to fruition in real life. Josh Fight, a mock fight and charity event that took place in Lincoln, Nebraska in 2021, was based on an internet meme about fighting to determine who had the right to use the popular name “Josh.”
While Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us may not have led to the liberation of secret aliens, its bizarre legacy lives on.
After reading about Storm Area 51, go inside the most convincing alien abduction stories from modern history. Then, learn about the conspiracy theory that claims the Moon landing was fake.
