EXETER — The UFO Festival returns over Labor Day weekend, offering an out-of-this-world experience for locals and tourists alike.
The two-day UFO festival pays tribute to the famous UFO sighting known as the “Exeter Incident,” which took place on September 3, 1965. The festival will take place at Town Hall, Town House Common and various locations downtown from 9am to 5pm on Saturday, August 31 and Sunday, September 1. Highlights include a panel talk with eight UFO experts, an alien costume contest and a trolley ride to the site of the first UFO sighting.
Connie Cox of the Exeter Area Kiwanis Club, organizer of the UFO festival, announced a new addition this year: a video loop about “The Exeter Incident” and the town's history.
“A lot of people from other areas come to our town and are really fascinated by the historic side of Exeter,” she said. “The video will be shown all day on both days.”
Cox said the festival grows every year, attracting nearly 10,000 local and international people, adding that it is also its largest fundraising event.
“As Kawanians, we've helped a lot of kids in our community (with the funds raised at the festival),” she said. “Last year we gave out $8,000 in scholarships alone for high school and SST (Seacoast School of Technology). We've given out scholarships to Camp Lincoln through the YMCA, we've given out helmets to kids and adults who ride bikes… We love doing things like this because we're not only helping our community, but kids in need in our community.”
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What was the “Exeter Affair”?
The festival originated after widely publicized sightings of strange red lights in the Exeter area on September 3, 1965.
In the early morning hours of September 3, the Exeter Police Department began receiving reports of flying objects chasing people. A woman reported being chased by a flying object with red lights while driving on Highway 101.
Two hours later, a terrified 18-year-old Navy recruit, Norman Muscarello, reported seeing a strange light in the woods near Kensington while hitchhiking home from Amesbury, Massachusetts.
Two officers accompanied Muscarello back to the farmhouse and later said they too had seen an unexplained flying object.
According to the newspaper article, the men described an object “the size of a house” that “floated silently over nearby farm buildings, startling animals in a barn before disappearing into the distance.”
The Air Force said the sighting was either a mirage caused by a temperature inversion or one of five B-47s in the area at the time.
The sighting took place in Kensington, but in John Fuller's book The Exeter Incident it is said to have taken place in Exeter.
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An expert on all things alien and UFO related
Did ancient civilizations know about UFOs all along? This Saturday at 10:30 a.m., Laird Scranton will give a talk called “Ancient Symbolic Aspects of UFO Encounters.”
The author of over a dozen books on ancient cosmology and languages, Scranton is widely known in paranormal communities and is a frequent guest on a variety of radio and podcast interview shows, including Red Ice Radio in Europe, Art Bell's “Desert at Midnight,” Coast to Coast Radio, and “Beyond Belief with George Noory.”
He will be one of eight experts speaking at the two-day festival at Exeter Town Hall, which costs $35 for a one or two day session.
On Saturday at 3:30pm Matt Moniz and Peter Robbins will give a talk called “Scientist/Experiencer and UFO Writer Come to the Bar: A Wide-Ranging Conversation.” Moniz, a scientist, has been analyzing samples of famous UFOs, crop formations and paranormal activity for decades. Robbins is an investigative writer, author and lecturer who specializes in unusual UFOs and their impact on humanity.
Other speakers will include local UFO researcher Katherine Brisendine, who has had UFO encounters herself, who will speak at 9 a.m. Sunday about the “thousands” of UFO sightings and incidents that have occurred in New Hampshire.
On Sunday at 2 p.m., Thomas Carey will give a talk titled “Roswell Now – From the Crash to AARO.” Carey, an Air Force veteran, has been investigating the 1947 Roswell incident, which was believed to have been caused by the crash of an extraterrestrial spacecraft, since 1991.
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When is the Alien Costume & Alien Pet Contest?
The Alien Costume and Alien Pet Contests will return on Saturday at noon. The costume contest is for kids 12 and under, and the pet contest is open to everyone.
The contest will feature “real aliens” as judges.
Participants will have the opportunity to march in costume from Townhouse Common to the town's bandstand. This event is free to attend.
How do I get on the trolley to the Kensington site?
One of the highlights of the festival each year is the trolley ride to the Kensington site, which takes place on both days of the festival.
Rides run from 9am to 3:30pm.
In response to popular demand, two narrated trolleys will be operating to and from the scene. The trolleys will depart from 10 Front Street and take passengers to the accident site in the neighboring town of Kensington, about five miles south of town.
Tickets are $5 for adults and can be purchased at the Front Street Trolley Station. Cash only.
Cox encouraged those interested to buy their tickets early, as rides sell out quickly. Rides are first come, first served, with trolleys departing every 30 minutes, with the last trolley leaving at 3 p.m.
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Food, souvenirs and other activities
The Exeter Area Kiwanis Club will provide food and drinks in a bandstand tent, where carnival-style food and drinks such as hot dogs, burgers, potato chips, and sodas will be served from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Don't forget to pick up your UFO Festival memorabilia at our booth in front of City Hall, open from 8:30am to 5pm on both days. From t-shirts to mugs, tote bags to posters, everything will be imprinted with the 2024 UFO Festival art.
The Exeter Police Department will be selling special edition patches at the UFO Festival on Saturday morning. All proceeds from the patch sales will benefit Maple, the police department's comfort dog. Patches will also be available for purchase at the Exeter Police Department, 20 Court Street, beginning August 31.
The festival will also feature plenty of activities for kids, highlighting lawn games like cornhole and activities like face painting and creating a “UFO crash site” on the Townhouse Common from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
From 3 to 6 p.m., Townhouse Common will be transformed into a dance floor with music from DJ John Jorge. Cox said the new venue will cater to all ages, but especially late teens and young adults.
Then, on Saturday at 7 p.m., jazz pianist Eric Mintel, who has performed at the White House for presidents George Bush and Barack Obama, will perform a concert at the Congregational Church at 21 Front Street.
Cox said one of her favorite things about the festival is the people she meets there.
“We hope people will come and just have a good time,” Cox said, “and if they're not from the area and don't know Exeter or the Seacoast area very well, we hope they'll come and see what a great little New England town it is.”