The alien economy: Roswell powered by passion for UFOs

...The Stacys opened their store, Alien Invasion T-Shirts & More, in 2014. It has since become a staple of the alien-powered economy in Roswell. The city has one of the most unusual downtowns in the country.

An estimated 15,000 tourists flocked to the city last week for its annual UFO Festival, which combines serious lectures on a host of paranormal subjects with Americana offerings, such as an alien-themed scavenger hunt and a pet costume contest. At the costume contest, several dogs were painted extraterrestrial green.

Most famous as the site of an alleged flying saucer crash in 1947, Roswell has fully embraced its legacy and uses it to draw tourist dollars — and virtually everyone in town has gotten in on the action.

Just around the corner from the International UFO Museum and Research Center sits a bakery with paintings on its facade of aliens holding cakes and doughnuts.

Up the street, the city’s barbershop has window drawings of aliens getting haircuts. A downtown clinic advertises “health care, alien style” with a blow-up alien in its window dressed in a nurse’s uniform. Banks, print shops, restaurants and gas stations all have at least a small nod to aliens, UFOs and the unexplained.

...Ms. Moore said this year’s UFO Festival — the 25th iteration of the yearly event — has drawn a record crowd thanks to a perfect storm of factors. The event was postponed last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and attendees have seemed eager to return to summertime gatherings. And this year’s UFO Festival came on the immediate heels of last month’s government report on unmanned aerial phenomena (UAP), which has fueled a major uptick in public interest in aliens...MORE