BURIEN, Wash. — Just days after the Congressional hearing on UFO, UAP and alien life, some believers in Burien are feeling validated and ready to celebrate with an out-of-this-world festival that’s crash landing in Olde Burien Friday.
BUFO is the Burien UFO Festival that's evolved over the last 10 years to include a film festival, costume contest and numerous vendors selling everything from alien-inspired art to clothing and other merchandise.
Founder John White says it all started with a group of talented local filmmakers who wanted to tell the story of the Maury Island incident.
“We didn’t know what the Maury Island incident was but it turns out to be an unbelievable, fantastic UFO story that happened on Vashon 10 days before Roswell,” White said.
The Maury Island incident refers to claims made by Fred Crisman and Harold Dahl of falling debris and threats by “men in black” following sightings of unidentified flying objects in the sky over Maury Island in Puget Sound in 1947. White says the film took second place at the Burbank Film Festival and that’s when they decided to bring the film and fun back to Burien and BUFO was born.
Special guests for the festival include Shanelle Schanze, Grandaughter of Kenneth Arnold.
“UFO people know who he is!” says White.
Arnold is responsible for the term “Flying Saucer” as we know it. He was an aviator and politician who is considered to have reported the first modern UFO sighting on a routine flight more than 75 years ago. He took off from Chehalis, Wash., and was headed for Pendleton, Ore.
He detoured to Mount Rainier where there was a search for a marine transport plane that had crashed. That’s when Arnold reportedly saw nine “saucers” that were going approximately 1,700 miles per hour.
“He didn’t talk about it for years and was warned not to speak about it but he spent the rest of his life trying to explain it and wrote a popular book that I’ve since re-released with new photos,” says Schanze. The Coming of the Saucers is available on Amazon and details the surreal experience and fame that changed Arnold's life forever.
BUFO will run late into Friday night with 80’s tribute band Nite Wave taking the stage at 9 p.m. Trophies and cash prizes will be handed out for six categories; Most Convincing Men In Black, Extra-Terrestrial Excellence, Most Likely to be Abducted, Out of the World Kid, Galactic Good Dog and Crowd Favorite.