Rachel party out of this world (thumpa, thumpa)

Deborah Robiglio
Review-Journal

The Rachel rave party and UFO rally went off without a hitch last weekend.

"No fights, no arrests," said Harold Singer, a Rachel resident who worked security for the event. "They just spinned records while the kids danced all night.

"It was really a clean party. Biggest party this town has ever seen."

The "Abduction" event attracted 576 people, promoters said.

Rachel, about 140 miles north of Las Vegas, is known for its proximity to the military's classified Groom Lake base at Area 51. Ufologists and others swear the government is hiding alien vessels and captured extraterrestrials at the base.

Partygoers paid $25 to dance to techno music from 6 p.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Sunday and learn more about alien lore. Also present were "experiencers," people claiming alien abduction.

Some Rachel residents were hesitant about playing host to a rave, an event often associated with drugs and alcohol, but the flying-saucer entrepreneurs said the event was profitable and uneventful.

"All those paranoid people that thought it was going to be a disaster were wrong," said Don Suttle, the show's promoter. "There was a lot of curiosity with the booths, the alien abductees.

"The sheriff's department was a little overzealous. Fine if they're on standby in case anything happens, but they made their presence overbearing." Lincoln County Sheriff Dahl Bradfield was unavailable for comment.

Suttle said he is planning another event. "Abduction" received national and international attention with reporters from the cable news network MSNBC, TV Guide magazine and The Times of London present interviewing participants.

"When I checked it out at 10:30 p.m., it looked pretty pathetic, " said Glen Campbell, director of the Area 51 Research Center who was featured in a September Esquire magazine article on Rachel. "But I hear it got ripping around 3 a.m.

"It was really loud. But from my back yard, all I could hear was the 'thumpa, thumpa, thumpa, thumpa.' "