UFO festival reaching for the stars

By Carla Allen

THE COAST GUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

If you’re searching for an out-of-this-world event to take in this summer you might want to check out the 2009 UFO Festival and Symposium in Shag Harbour on Aug. 14/15.

This is the third year for the event and organizers are anticipating more visitors than ever.

A slash in the entry price for this year’s symposium is expected to help. Last year close to 50 registered at $35/each. This year’s price for the symposium is $10. Four UFO speakers/researchers, half the number of presenters for 2008, have been booked to cut costs. “Last year we had eight speakers that we had to pay for, plus their gas mileage and a flight from the U.S. for one speaker,” said Cindy Nickerson, chair of the Shag Harbour Incident Society. The organization broke even thanks to funding and residents who hosted speakers.

On Friday, Aug. 14 the action starts at the UFO museum centre in Shag Harbour at 9 a.m. with displays by local artists: Jillian Kendrick (Shag Harbour Sea Glass); John Cameron paintings and Ruth Rocks, a local folk artist who paints aliens on rocks. The UFO researchers will also be selling copies of their books.

At 10 a.m. a press conference is scheduled, followed by a barbecue at 11 a.m. and entertainment by Dale Nickerson. At 1 p.m.

Chris Styles will preview his new book. “We recommend that people bring lawn chairs so they’ll be able to sit for the afternoon,” said Nickerson.

At 3 p.m. there will be a draw for four to win a lobster supper with the researchers. At 5 p.m. the supper will be served at the Stage Coach Inn (cost to be announced).

On Saturday, Aug. 15, the UFO centre opens at 10 a.m. The symposium starts at the Island and Barrington Fire Hall at 9:15 a.m. with David Cvet, followed by Chris Styles at 10:45 a.m.

An Alien Café will be open for lunch and presenters will have their books for sale along with local artist’s wares. At 1 p.m. Don Ledger takes the stage, followed by Stanton Friedman at 2:30 p.m. There will be a panel session hosted by the four presenters at 4:30 p.m.

At 7 p.m. a variety show (cost $5) will be held at the Island and Barrington Fire Hall with several musical acts, a comedian and Chris Styles performing. Participants are encouraged to enter the Alien Costume Contest and dress up as anything related to space. There will be a prize for the best costume.

Nickerson says “loads of people” have been emailing and phoning about the festival. “The furthest person that I know of is coming from Denmark and another lady is coming from California. I think the longer that you do this, and the more people that know about it, the more interest there is from people to come.”

For more info on the UFO Festival and Symposium visit: www.shagharbourufo.com.

Sidebar:

Speaker bios

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Chris Styles

Chris Styles is a UFO researcher who investigates UFO incidents in Atlantic Canada. He is best known for his work on the Shag Harbour Incident.

In 1995 he directed an underwater search on the seabed of Shag Harbour resulting in several segments for the syndicated UFO documentary program "Sightings". He has served as a paid technical advisor with several Canadian UFO feature documentaries with his most recent in the U.S. History Channel's 60 minute feature documentary "UFO Files: Canada's Roswell".

In 2001 Styles co-authored "Dark Object" with fellow UFO researcher Don Ledger.

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Stanton T. Friedman

Nuclear physicist-lecturer Stanton T. Friedman was employed for 14 years as a nuclear physicist by such companies as GE, GM, Westinghouse, TRW Systems, Aerojet General Nucleonics, and McDonnell-Douglas working in such highly advanced, classified, eventually cancelled programs as nuclear aircraft, fission and fusion rockets, and various compact nuclear power-plants for space and terrestrial applications.

Since 1967 he has lectured about UFOs at more than 600 colleges and 100 professional groups in 50 U.S. states, nine Canadian provinces and 16 other countries in addition to various consulting efforts. He has published more than 80 UFO papers and has appeared on hundreds of radio and TV programs. He is the original civilian investigator of the Roswell Incident and co-authored “Crash at Corona: The Definitive Study of the Roswell Incident”. TOP SECRET/MAJIC was published in 1996. A new edition was published in 2005.

Friedman was presented with a Lifetime UFO Achievement Award in Leeds, England, in 2002, by UFO Magazine of the UK. He is co-author with Kathleen Marden (Betty Hill’s Niece) of a book in the summer of 2007 “Captured: The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience”. The City of Fredericton declared August 27,2007, Stanton Friedman Day. His latest book is “Flying Saucers and Science”.

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David Cvet

David Cvet's lecture will present material collected from one or more preliminary dives for the purpose of confirming the existence of a sonar anomalous target as detected by the Navicula scans out of the Bedford Oceanographic Institute in 1988 through a drift/stationary-dive expedition. This will be followed up by another dive expedition off Government Point at Shelburne. A second preliminary dive is to examine the area where the alleged pair of Unidentified Submerged Objects (USOs) remained submerged for a number of days before exiting the waters and vanishing into space.

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Don Ledger

Author, UFO phenomenon investigator and pilot Don Ledger lives in Nova Scotia. He is the author of three books, "Maritime UFO Files" a catalogue of UFO sightings in eastern Canada, "Swissair Down" a detailed look at the crash of Swissair Flight 111 off the coast of Nova Scotia and more recently "Dark Object" co-authored with Chris Styles, which chronicles the Shag Harbour Incident in October 4, 1967.

Ledger continues to write for magazines and periodicals. He has been investigating the UFO phenomenon for 20 years and presently concentrates on UFO sightings by pilots. Ledger, a pilot for nearly 30 years, is the Canadian Affiliate and technical specialist for NARCAP the National Aviation Reporting Center for Anomalous Phenomena. He has appeared in numerous documentaries, television and on radio programs and lectures at various UFO conferences around North America.

Ledger has worked as a technologist and a television producer/director for the Nova Scotia government for 34 years. He retired in 2004.