Roswell celebrates UFOs with — who else? — Jefferson Starship

Roswell, N.M., the city that celebrates all things unidentified and flying, is marking the anniversary of its famous UFO incident with a festival.

The Roswell fest will be July 2-5. The four-day event will feature guest speakers and personalities, authors, live entertainment, and family-friendly activities.

» Click to enlarge image

Two "aliens" pose for a photograph in front of Imagine That Scrapbooks on Main Street in downtown Roswell, N.M., at the 2007 UFO Festival.

(AP)

Classic rock group Jefferson Starship and the Grateful Dead’s Tom Constanten will perform on Friday, July 3. Jefferson Starship will also be the "Grand Martians" of the Amazing Roswell Alien Parade. Richard Street’s The Temptations will perform on Saturday. Also in attendance will be special guest Hank Williams Jr.

"Guests can make their own hypotheses about what led government officials to change their story by visiting the crash site, alien attractions and attending lectures about one of the most infamous cover-ups in history," festival organizers say.

Information and a schedule of events are available via the festival Web site, www.UFOFestivalRoswell.com.

The festival organizers tell the history of the famous July 1947 incident this way:

A mysterious object crashed on a ranch north of Roswell. The Roswell Army Airfield issued a statement claiming to have recovered a crashed "flying disk." The next day, the airfield changed its statement to say that the recovered object was a weather balloon, not a flying disk. This revised statement sparked immediate controversy and has continued to be a topic of debate more than 60 years later.