Roswell Festival Was Out Of This World
by Lauren E. Toney
Officials from the International UFO Museum and Research Center stated this year’s Roswalien Experience was a success as attendance jumped more than 25 percent.
Julie Shuster, the museum’s executive director, said 7,216 UFO enthusiasts attended the lectures, workshops, celebrity appearances and other events held during this year’s festival from Thursday through Sunday.
“I would have been happy if we had met last year’s totals,” Shuster said. “Especially with the economy the way it is and with gas prices rising. You never know what to expect.”
With visitors from across the country and the globe, Shuster said the most important thing was that everyone was learning and having fun.
Appearances by celebrity guests Dee Wallace Stone, known for her role in E.T. and Keir Duella, who played the lead role in 2001: A Space Odyssey proved to be the biggest hits during the festival, Shuster said.
She added the museum didn’t change its winning formula much for this year’s Roswalien Experience, with top researchers and authors presenting their work and offering serious lectures on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, as has come to be expected.
“I saw many attend every lecture they could during the day, and then come back for a night lecture,” she said.
With a number of speakers and special guests, Shuster said the museum booked 17 rooms for a minimum of five nights each at a local hotel.
Now that this year’s festival has come to an end, Shuster said she has already begun planning the 2009 Roswalien Experience. “I have about 75 percent of the speakers confirmed,” she said, adding that the festival is something museum officials plan year-round. “We make notes every year of what we should change the following year, so everything gets much more fine tuned with every festival.”
In the past month, the museum has welcomed anywhere from 700 to 1,000 visitors a day, according to Shuster. “We’re a 362-day-a-year event,” she said of the center, which averages about 160,000 visitors each year.
http://www.roswell-record.com/
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alf on Tuesday, July 08, 2008i had a great time,i was the furry one!the rest were freaks!
