Walk of Fame, MainStreet’s UFO parade to be part of UFO Festival

Preparations for the UFO Festival, July 1-3, are in full swing and packages of signs and other materials line the corridor leading to Roswell Public Affairs Director Juanita Jennings’ office, ready to be distributed throughout town to guide visitors to the various events.

Jennings said during a UFO Festival community planning meeting Tuesday, at the Roswell Convention Center, that the signs will be available for businesses to display.

Jennings had said during an interview Monday that a drone show has just been confirmed, sponsored by the company Sky Element. The drones will form figures in the night sky, morphing from a weather balloon to a UFO, military symbols and the New Mexico and American flags.

“It will be only nine minutes, once, it’s very expensive,” Jennings said. “It’s almost a $70,000 sponsorship that we received from them because Roswell is so famous for UFOs. It is really neat to have that partnership. That will be Friday night after the costume contest.” 

During the planning meeting Tuesday, members of the committee gave updates on the planning for the festival. Barbara Gomez, MainStreet Roswell board member, said there will be a parade after the Alien Pet Costume Contest on July 2 at 9:30 a.m. The parade will line up on West 12th Street to Main Street, run South on Main Street to Third Street and then disburse on Third Street.

“The theme is Close Encounters of the Roswell Kind,” Gomez said. “It is free for everyone.” The UFO Museum is sponsoring the parade by donating monetary awards from $250 to $500. Gomez emphasized that everyone can join, including churches and civic organizations. The registration form will be available soon on MainStreet Roswell’s Facebook page and website.

Jennings said the city felt it was important to find the right thing to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the alleged crash of an unidentified flying object in 1947. She said City Manager Joe Neeb came up with the suggestion of having a Star Walk of Fame, similar to Hollywood’s, with large bronze stars. The first recipients, who will be honored during the UFO Festival, July 1 at 1 p.m., are scientist and UFO researcher Stanton Friedman and Maj. Jesse Marcel.

Friedman, who died in 2019, put Roswell on the map when he learned in 1978 about an obscure story involving a UFO and an information officer who had been stationed in Roswell in 1947. Friedman got in contact with this officer, Maj. Jesse Marcel, and this was the beginning of the search for the truth. Marcel — who died in 1986 — had been assigned to investigate a crashed object north of Roswell in 1947. Under Marcel’s authority a press release was sent to the Roswell Daily Record, which was published July 8, 1947. It stated that “a flying saucer” had been found.

In a phone conversation, Jesse Marcel III, grandson of Maj. Marcel, said that Friedman became a close friend of the family. Asked about his reaction when he heard his grandfather would be honored, Marcel III said, “I couldn’t be more proud and more excited about it, to have the city of Roswell do this to honor my grandfather. He’s a big part of the story of Roswell and the UFO crash. He lived his life always believing in Roswell and his time served there at the local base and also his involvement in the UFO crash.

“There is one thing that I want to put out there that is not known publicly,” Marcel III said. “He was proud of it. He said, what is the chance of all the people on Earth, he was the one that went out there and said, that was not made by human hands. He went out to look at it. In a way, he was lucky to be that person. He did suffer retribution again back in those days. But in the end, if you finalize what his thoughts were about Roswell in his last days, he was proud to be part in it.”

Marcel III said he will be attending the ceremony with his wife and two children. Also attending will be Friedman’s daughter. She could not be reached for comment by press time.

Christina Stock may be contacted at 622-7710, ext. 309, or at vision@rdrnews.com.