Area 29 brings four days of alien and space themed fun to Twentynine Palms starting Thursday (8/13)
While the 2023 Perseid Meteor Shower didn’t bring any alien invasion, many residents ran screaming from the twenty-mile gridlock from Morongo Valley all the way to the entrance of Joshua Tree National Park from curious stargazers, many of whom were likely first-time explorers to the area. While residents were frustrated with the sudden congestion, Scorpion Lollipop owner Sara Lyons saw it as an opportunity to put Twentynine Palms on the map.
“We all noticed the huge influx of people coming into town for the Perseid meteor showers and we couldn’t we couldn’t believe all the traffic that was coming into town and we thought ‘it’s crazy that nobody thought to capitalize on this,’ so the next year we thought ‘why don’t we capitalize on that—since people will be coming into town looking up at the sky anyway let’s give them some more things to look for,” said Lyons.
The result is the Area 29 Galactic Gathering, an outer space and alien themed weekend that has now expanded into four days. The opening night on Thursday will have a UFO Pool Party at Luckie Park, followed by Friday’s live theremin performance by Rocky Angel and literary reading from P.O. Box Outer Space at Corner 62. Saturday will feature a live performance by Alien Probe, stargazing by Joshua Tree Astronomy Adventures and space-themed comedy at the Elks Lodge. The festival will conclude Sunday at the Twentynine Palms Historic Plaza with a glow-in-the-dark dance party powered by DJ MMB’s Daft Punk tribute set, live mural art by Josh R, and space portraits.
“We originally started thinking about it just because there is so much history of UFO sightings and just alien culture here obviously there’s giant rock and George van tassel over the years if you’ve listened to Coast to Coast in the middle of the night there’s always stories about things happening in the high desert. You’re always hearing things about things floating in the sky over the military base and as a business owner we get a lot of people who come in and tell us that they think they saw something in the sky. Even before I lived in the high desert I knew that that was kind of a place where people like to come and indulge themselves in like the esoteric and the strange and the fun and the otherworldly and so we just wanted to try and really capture that.”
Sun of the Desert owner Jimmy Brower says Area 29 is also in solidarity for local businesses during the slowest month of the year.
“Area 29 is also just kind of one of those offseason big signature events that you typically don’t see throughout our visitor peak season, a way for Rediscover 29 and 29 Palms Small Business Association to really uplift all its business membership. We’ve grown to around seventy-five (businesses) now, so across small businesses and nonprofits this is just a great way to boost the local economy, get locals out and involved. Shopping, eating, drinking and just really having fun and having something cool to do in the summer,” said Brower.
For more information on the four-day Area 29 Galactic Gathering, please visit: rediscover29.com
