We were in search of those who bear witness to the mysterious events that have defined life in the UFO capitol of the world. Pine Bush is the kind of town that Mulder and Scully would have visited in Season 1 to investigate a cow mutilation. Normal enough until you start listening to the gossip and lore of the town. Stories of all variety. Triangle UFOs. Metallic flying spheres. Thousands of sightings from townsfolk, local officials, and even cops, from over a century. Many well-documented with shared eyewitness accounts.

We met both the sincere and the eccentric while filming our short documentary and captured a subculture on the fringes, just before startling test pilot videos began circulating in major newspapers like the New York Times and eventually, in congressional hearings. New York's own Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand are among the most vocal lawmakers behind the new wave of interest. With UFOs and aliens now on the front pages and in new legislation, we wondered how the vibe has shifted in Pine Bush and decided to return on Saturday, June 1st. Not just as filmmakers producing a follow-up documentary, but as vendors at the town's UFO fair — in the trenches in a community of true believers.

Pine Bush's yearly UFO Fair features merchandisers, food vendors, tarot card readers, self-published authors, and us, a space media company that would happily welcome a meeting with aliens or a photo of an alien spacecraft. We also make some pretty cool UFO merch, some themed for Pine Bush. Our vendor neighbors were a toy store and a soap maker. After setting up, we remarked how far we were from Cape Canaveral or Starbase, and that this isn't our usual crowd. Soon after, a man wearing a full rubber alien space warrior suite with an official U.S Space Force mission patch greeted us. "Fancy meeting you here!" as we handed him a free Supercluster launch poster. Practicing good intergalactic diplomacy, he gifted us one in return. I joked that we should carpool back to Florida.

There were quite a few fake (hopefully!) federal agents walking around. Quite a few Men in Black, some FBI, and we even saw a Ghostbuster. I mistakenly called out a Dana Scully, due to what I thought was a recognizable wig. She corrected me by explaining that she was dressed as a character from Dr. Who. And yes, there were multiple Dalek's in attendance. The crowds grew as morning turned to afternoon, many visitors being locals, nerdy cosplayers, and families with children. We gave out a few hundred Astronaut Baseball cards and demonstrated how to use our free suite of apps to track all human activity in space. Not as interesting as tentacled invaders but fun nonetheless.

Humans can be aliens too! We told the children of Pine Bush, who rolled their eyes.

While the general conversation around UFO or UAPs have dwindled over the last few months due to lack of hard evidence and splits among the vocal and very-online UFO community. Some have published more books and some continue to raise more money for the cause. The Pentagon's AARO (UFO investigation unit) said there's no evidence of aliens so nobody listens to them anymore. An older gentlemen visited our table to remark on our "cool" AARO UFO Mission Patch that we have for sale. I explained that we were trolling the Pentagon office with the saucer design. He laughed and walked away with it. Without paying.

The people of Pine Bush seemed mostly unbothered by the UFO topic entering the mainstream. Some hit us with "well yea, we've been saying it!" and a couple of folks seemed validated by the news coverage. We met a podcaster who said he felt empowered to share his own experience and sightings around the area. The folks featured in our upcoming Pine Bush follow-up will feature some of the more passionate storytellers around town.

The fringe conversations that were legitimized over the mainstream UFO news cycle and taken seriously, are beginning to fade back into obscurity. "The government is covering everything up!" one side will say. Another will jump in with "these UFOs and aliens might be angels and demons." While we can't speak for the latter, we can report that the government (NASA) and one of America's largest defense contractors (Boeing) have their Starliner crew capsule stuck at the International Space Station many days past its mission due to technical issues plaguing the spacecraft.

If they are in possession of alien technology, they don't know how to use it. They can barely operate the human technology, which is around 50 years old.

While at the Pine Bush UFO fair, we became users of our own app as we turned our attention to Kennedy Space Center where Jenny was covering the troubled Starliner mission. As you know, it scrubbed. And we did announce it to those in ear shot of our vendor table.

A woman in full alien space queen regalia asked in a surprising and suspicious tone, "Boeing flies astronauts!?"

"Not yet" we explained to the person who believes aliens regularly fly over Pine Bush. "We hope Boeing is able to fly soon.....we want to believe."

At the end of the day, many of the folks we met during the Pine Bush UFO fair are just passionately curious and proud of the myth that surrounds their town. Many of the town's parents stopped by our table to download the Supercluster app, so they can help their kids spot the International Space Station with the naked eye. If they are looking up anyway, might as well spot our own spacecraft.

Our mission is to create more space fans and make it much easier to be a space fan. That means meeting people where they are. And sometimes that's the Space Prom at the Pine Bush UFO Museum on a Friday night.

Our next Pine Bush documentary will be out soon.

For more photos by Levi Christiansen visit https://www.levichristiansen.com/