Storm Area 51 creator calls Alienstock 'a possible humanitarian disaster'. But it's still going ahead.

Alienstock — the Nevada desert music festival that grew out of a joke Facebook event to plan to "Naruto run" into Area 51 — is battling reports that it's not ready to host thousands of people, after the guy who started the year's wildest meme pulled out citing "poor planning" and endorsed a competing party.

Matty Roberts — the 21-year-old creator of the original event "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All Of Us", which drew over 2 million RSVPs worldwide before being shut down by Facebook — had been helping to promote and book music for Alienstock.

The festival was to be held in the tiny town of Rachel, Nevada, the nearest inhabited place to the Area 51 military site, between Sept. 19–22. Alienstock is a celebration of the unexpected virality of the Sept. 20 event (not to mention a way of attracting people away from the original, very illegal and dangerous, suggestion to try and storm a top secret Air Force base).

But Roberts severed his association with Alienstock on Monday, with a statement on the event website calling it “a possible humanitarian disaster” and "FYREFEST 2.0”, citing "lack of infrastructure, poor planning, risk management and blatant disregard for the safety of the expected 10,000+ Alienstock attendees."

The website statement details concerns about event planning and logistics:

The permit holder (Connie West) was given multiple opportunities to provide us with the proof that things expected at this festival were in place. In fact, she refused to provide to us, as agreed upon, contracts, proof of deposits or any paper proof of anything.

We are officially disconnecting from Connie West, Rachel NV and AlienStock's affiliation with them. We will no longer offer our logo, social media, website or Matty Roberts likeness or scheduled appearance. … We are not interested in, nor will we tolerate any involvement in a FYREFEST 2.0. We foresee a possible humanitarian disaster in the works, and we can’t participate in any capacity at this point.”

Instead, the Alienstock page now directs attendees heading to Nevada next weekend to the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, promising "EDM artists and some unique art" at a free event in partnership with Bud Light on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 19. (The event was already planned before Roberts joined — it was announced on Sept. 3.)

Some outlets subsequently reported that Alienstock has been cancelled.

However -- and here's where it gets a tad complicated -- the organisers say the festival is very much still going ahead.

A competing website, alienstockparking.com, lists acts including Boots Electric (aka Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes) and LA trio Wily Savage as part of the lineup and claims to be "The OFFICIAL Storm Area 51 Festival".

Joe Bartels, a reporter with KTNV 13 Action News in Las Vegas, says he verified that West has engaged security, medical, police, and sanitation services for the event.

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"I'm going to do it on my scale," West told Fox 5 news in Las Vegas. "I'm going to do it the way I know how and what I've been planning for because I know no other way to do it. But it's still happening.

“I’m still having a party because people are still coming to Rachel."

Frank DiMaggio, Roberts' new partner in the Vegas-based event, was one of the organizers of Peacestock 51 — one of the other events planned in the area for that weekend, which was denied a permit.

Alon Burton, who plays in Wily Savage and is also curating the music lineup, told Mashable that his band has been part of the event since Roberts' event first began to take off, when the "attendance" was in the low hundreds of thousands.

Burton says Roberts got involved after plans were already in motion, and him switching his allegiance to the Vegas event less than two weeks out from Alienstock was not only "emotionally draining" on West and the planning team, but that five bands on the 20+ act bill have either pulled out or are "on the fence" in the wake of Roberts' claims.

"[Roberts] having control over the AlienStock festival website and the [festival's] Facebook event, definitely allowed them to do harm to the event that we have been planning since the beginning," Burton told Mashable over the phone, adding that Roberts' decision may have been influenced by the older and more experienced DiMaggio.

"But, you know, doing that simply to get people to go to some alien-themed party in Las Vegas is not only just shitty, but also is pretty stupid."

But as West says, people are still coming to the original Alienstock event. Burton says AlienStock not only has the required approvals from local authorities and the infrastructure in place, but also has 2,600 camping spots booked — which he estimates puts the confirmed attendance at "at least 8,000."

Mashable contacted the organizers of both events for comment, but the Vegas event team hadn't responded by the time of publication.

Storm Area 51 has unravelled from a beautiful demonstration of the power of a good meme, unity in the face of a chaotic reality, and unwavering commitment to a bit, and turned into a splintered pile of branded memes, "Old Town Road" remixes, and competing parties. Whether this is a deliberate operation on the part of the U.S. military to derail an out-of-control prank that could see alien tissue samples turn up on Facebook Marketplace, or simply a natural consequence of an anarchic, tongue-in-cheek meme turning into something so real there are military briefings about it, remains to be seen.

But something will be happening in the desert next weekend — even if it's just a few thousand people having a close encounter with some bands and a slightly dusty taco.