UFO Fest Lands in Thurston County

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Yelm’s Triad Arts Theater landed the Earth UFO Fest & Cosmic Symposium at the Thurston County Fairgrounds this Labor Day weekend with vendors, speakers, music, food, two beer and wine gardens, costume contests, telescope viewing, fun for kids and, of course, aliens of all kinds.

Organizer Cameron Cassidy Jayne, who is also the director of arts at the Triad Arts Theater, said, “Since Yelm is known as a woo-woo community, I figured we should play that up.” 

Some of that longtime paranormal interest came from a sighting of nine disc-like flying objects near Mount Rainier seen by pilot Kenneth Arnold during his flight from Chehalis to Yakima in 1947. 

Vendors had booths outside and inside buildings on Saturday and Sunday. It was the first time the festival was held at the fairgrounds. The first two were hosted in Yelm.  

Arora Studios, owned by Arora, a Native artist, displayed science fiction and fantasy banners, jewelry, scrimshaw and carvings, plus many Native art items. The McKenna artist has been going to festivals for 30 years, including the Star Trek convention in Las Vegas. 

“I started out custom airbrushing cars and worked my way into various artforms, some of it science fiction and fantasy,” she said. “It may not be real, but it’s fun.” 

Two stages entertained continually with different kinds of music, magic shows, a mentalist, a comedian, a reptile show, belly dancers and a Iridology presentation. The Galaxy Theater provided the continuous running of footage of shows such as “Real Aliens” and “Ancient Aliens.” 

The Cosmic Symposium simultaneously ran during the UFO Fest with more than 10 speakers and panels. 

One speaker was Dr. Miceal Ledwith, a former Catholic priest from Ireland who also said he was an adviser to Pope John Paul. He told the audience that humans have many different DNAs from other species, including aliens. 

“We are suffering because aliens tinkered with us genetically,” he said. “Jesus came to help fix our DNA.”



Speaker Dr. Matt Johnson, a clinical psychologist, spoke about his 19 years of many personal encounters in with the “forest people,” or what some call Bigfoot. 

“I’m not crazy. More than 400 people have also had encounters with forest people,” he said. 

He explained how he went about contacting the forest people, starting with leaving food out for them and setting up a parabolic microphone. 

He spends many nights in the forest with family and other interested people seeking the forest people. 

He said that the forest people now speak with him out loud in words, both English and in their language. They also speak to him through telepathy, or mind speak, as Johnson called it. 

He told the audience that he discovered one of the portals that the forest people use to go between their planet and Earth. 

“And I’ve learned how to open it,” he said.