Purley Gates - input welcome for an event idea for UFO enthusiasts and alike

Hi there! I'm not going to get into major specifics but to give you an idea, I enjoy and am getting fairly competent at event organizing. I'd really like to do something that gives UFO enthusiasts, paranormal fans etc the chance to "celebrate" the field.

But the events that do occur don't really seem very celebratory. You have clubs, that run like any other clubs I presume - a night a month in a village hall. You have conferences which seem extremely serious (and that's fine) and typically run with the theme of "We are pushing for disclosure" every time. And some book sellings

I'd like to try and set something up that's along these lines but also a little different. More of a 'festival' than a club or a conference. A place for people to camp, enjoy music and have their face painted. But by night do some skywatching, show live infra-red feeds over big screens, astronomy, etc etc. I just think it'd be more "fun" and more celebratory than the other events of UFOlogy.

So I've been looking into land that can be hired and have found a very reasonable set of fields that allow for a lot of parking, camping, fireworks, open fires etc. Although it's shadowed by Reading (UK) it's a nice site set right on the river thames with Toad Hall across the way. It's also 10 mins from the A4, and about 30 mins drive from Avebury, Silbury etc.

I had considered somewhere close to Avebury (so that the event itself could be in the heart of crop circle county) but the options in those areas are limited, and a lot, lot smaller. Good for a few enthusiasts to meet up but not a general bunch of people. Purley is still in good range of these sites though.

So my questions are straight forward.

1) Would you attend a UK festival that celebrates the phenomena, typically summertime?
2) How long would you stay for, one night, two or three?
3) Are you a camper, or do you prefer to stay in caravans/motorhome?
4) What kind of activities would you want from such a festival/event? My ideas include:
- Skywatching, astronomy tuition, live IR feeds
- Live music, face painting, mystics and palm readers
- Daytime trips by specially arranged coach to Avebury and any current crop circles
- Food, drink (and bar) toilets, parking, fireworks, etc
- What else? Quadcopter demonstrations? Chinese lantern lighting? (activities to help people stop mis-idenfifying UFOs )
5) What would you hope to get out of it? ie: To see some of the local places like Silbury Hill? To possibly see a UFO? To meet other people who share an interest? You tell me.

Basically I'm willing to get it running even if it's on a small scale. Initially I'll really just be working with the enthusiasm/lack of that appears here in this thread. And there is no team organized for such a thing at this point, it's very early stages. But I intend to have a proper inspection of the site if there's positive reactions. And of course, happy to hear some ideas or suggestions. There are no guarantees (certainly not for this year) but, it's without a doubt that at some point I'll run an event of this nature, no idea on the scale - but yeah it's important for me that such an event is there for people to visit, cos there doesn't seem to be much going on beyond clubs (that seem to be dying off anyway) and conferences (that typically only happen in USA).

Is there some other big paranormal/UFO festival? All I can really think of are the conferences in America that take place in airport Hilton or what not each year... This would be less that. I can't imagine tempting an ex-military 80 yr old veteran to come and talk in a field... But we can have a boogie and a beer and look at the stars and spot a fast-walker or two

thanks for your time! ML

Wouldn't it make more sense to set this sort of thing up at a location with a paranormal history. I am certain there are plenty of places in you area with this kind of background, you could even run it as a Ghost Hunters sort of thing. Stay all night/day and look for whatever....

I recommend dragons.

Thorneblood
Wouldn't it make more sense to set this sort of thing up at a location with a paranormal history. I am certain there are plenty of places in you area with this kind of background, you could even run it as a Ghost Hunters sort of thing. Stay all night/day and look for whatever....

I recommend dragons.

Find a place with megaliths and a history of weird lights. That seems to be a good bet from what I've read.

It's more "base of operations". People can go and do what they want over the course of the event, but have somewhere to camp and corroborate their findings night. Alternatively, they can just stick around on site and get involved in some activities or enjoy some music.

A simple search for ghosts, UFOs etc in Berkshire, Wiltshire and Oxfordshire (the surrounding counties) will show you it's a very rich area for that kind of thing. It's 15 miles from crop circle central, which is one of the main reasons, close to home enough that I can actually deal with it and of course, along a major rail line in case people want to come from further afield. Also, hiring out known haunted locations is probably a) going to have a huge hire price b) not be favorable to the owners of said haunted land, they wouldn't want 300 people trying to investigate their haunted pantry

reply to post by markymint


Screw that noise, go looking for fairies and dragons. No one does that these days.

reply to post by Thorneblood


I think the ending of the MK ULTRA experiments put a stop to all that dragon and fairy talk you speak of....

markymint
Hi there! I'm not going to get into major specifics but to give you an idea, I enjoy and am getting fairly competent at event organizing. I'd really like to do something that gives UFO enthusiasts, paranormal fans etc the chance to "celebrate" the field.

But the events that do occur don't really seem very celebratory. You have clubs, that run like any other clubs I presume - a night a month in a village hall. You have conferences which seem extremely serious (and that's fine) and typically run with the theme of "We are pushing for disclosure" every time. And some book sellings

Have you considered taking an entirely different track?

Have you considered something like bringing together some of the biggest names in actual interesting real science for such a festival?

Something like Michio Kaku on Sci Fi Science (real work into Invisibility, Teleportation, Parallel Universes, Mind Reading etc), Sara Seager on the search for habitable exoplanets, Hiroshi Ishiguro the inventor of Human Looking Androids, Paul Davies on Time Travel and looking for Alien Artifacts on the Moon, Seth Shostak on SETI, Neil DeGrasse Tyson on Mars and solar system exploration, Lawrence Krauss Miguel Alcubierre's on Warp Drive theory, and if you must have UFOs then maybe Leslie Kean and Stanton Friedman on UFOs?

The reason I propose such a "Rockstars of Science" conference/festival is due to the huge public interest in these areas which is on the rise (while interest in UFOs is on the decline) and because these people are all very interesting speakers who have a passion for their work and getting it out there for the masses.

We live in a time not unlike that of Copernicus or Galileo, a remarkable time of discovery, where age old questions such as, who we are, where did we come from, are we alone, what is the nature of reality are starting to be answered scientifically.

During Copernicus and Galileo's times plenty of people chased ghosts and demons, while the real interesting stuff was real and interesting.

You have a chance to perhaps bring together one of the biggest and best popular science festivals in the world. Why throw together more of the same demon chasing stuff you've already done?

You have the chance to inspire people rather than just fill their heads with the same hoaxes, charlatans, etc. Give the people something new and of substance and you may be creating a whole new genre of festival. (Well not entirely new, popular science festivals were big during the early 1900s, everything that's old is new again though.)

If you are not familiar with some of these people I mentioned (plenty of people are) here you go:


Michio Kaku


Sara Seager


Hiroshi Ishiguro


Paul Davies



Seth Shostak


Neil DeGrasse Tyson


Lawrence Krauss


Leslie Kean



Don't you think that would be a more refreshing assortment than the same old/same old of most UFO conferences/festivals? Most of these people would likely jump at such an idea as it would provide a more interesting venue than the types of conferences they usually speak at. It would be part vacation for them.

4) What kind of activities would you want from such a festival/event? My ideas include:
- Skywatching, astronomy tuition, live IR feeds

YES! Get a couple local amateur astronomy societies involved, they love to do such public outreach. They'll bring their telescopes and weather permitting people can view the planets, moons of Jupiter and some beautiful nebulae in them.

- Live music, face painting, mystics and palm readers

Live music yes! There are plenty of bands, DJs etc who can do space, science, or alien themed sets.
Face painting absolutely! Kids love it!
Mystics and Palm Readers? Why bother with these charlatans? Big no.

- Daytime trips by specially arranged coach to Avebury and any current crop circles

How about a demonstration/crowd participation thing where people show how to make a crop circle and the people who show up get to participate in the making of one like this:

- Food, drink (and bar) toilets, parking, fireworks, etc

Absolutely.

- What else? Quadcopter demonstrations? Chinese lantern lighting? (activities to help people stop mis-idenfifying UFOs )

Brilliant idea. You can get with the local Radio Control flyers clubs who love to demonstrate their night flying abilities to do this and you can have a mass Chinese lantern lighting ceremony to end the whole festival

Hi there, thanks for your input. I clearly never said it before now, apologies for that, but thanks!

Yes good points. I now have some folks who are actually connected to this stuff (not Michio at this point though sorry) that I think would be willing to lend support to this and possibly travel from UK, europe and international parts to help put on a schedule of related...things UFO experts, crop circle folks, shamans, spiritualists, ghost hunters, astronomers... sure!

As such, and to think I posted this 3 years ago, I'm starting to move forward with this to see if it picks up any traction. I've moved away from another event I've spent the last 5 years doing and want to focus on something new.

As you may or may not know, The Barge Inn which was an annular location for crop circlers (and camping) changed into an italian restaraunt so in 2017 there was no centralized point (that I know of) for that crowd. I'm happy to try and make something work to cater for that initially, but also keep a wider picture (ie not just crop circlers) in mind. It could be as simple as camping, but I think, as you note, would be best to offer a little more than that... If you have the opportunity to do so, why not take it, etc!

Although I haven't found a suitable site in Wiltshire, I do have my eye on one in Berkshire that has good access to central London, the A4 and the crop circle area. Great site on the thames and the area can be a bit of a UFO hotspot when it wants to be. It can be used for events of this nature, so can have the live entertainment, talks, bbq, fireworks, star-gazing etc etc.

You're absolutely right, I'm not so interested in a "conference room" UFO event. There are bucket loads of those. I think it should be more celebratory and natural than that. And I want to spot UFOs when I go to a UFO event not an air conditioning unit!! But not sure the rockstars of science would want to go camping... But you never know. I guess the point is, like your point about discovery, it's going to have to grow over time, from tiny acorn does big tree grow, such and such.

But for something like this there clearly is a certain minimal outlay for all this stuff. Hire costs etc. Guest expenses. So in most cases it would be scaled accordingly to that. That said I do have something to throw at it, and I would not do something that's going to break me in the process, lol. So it might be relatively unheard of to begin with. Though there are definitely a few aces up the sleeve that might work in this event ideas favour.

Well, just musing, and letting you folks know there is some traction on this. If anyone in Berks/Oxon/Wilts enjoys the prospect of helping with an event of this nature, feel free to send me a message. Otherwise just keep an eye out, I'll have a website online soon enough to gauge interest and see if it's worth pushing on with for 2018.

later!