How a UFO sighting in 1950 created this Oregon town’s biggest annual event
The McMenamins UFO Festival takes place May 16-17, with a lineup that offers presentations by ufologists for the true believers and costumed silliness to entertain even the skeptics.
The roots of the UFO Festival trace back to May 11, 1950, when Evelyn Trent went out to feed the chickens on her family’s farm outside McMinnville and saw a large, metallic, disc-shaped object in the sky.
She called for her husband, Paul Trent, who snapped two photos of the object hovering above the fields before it vanished.
The photos were published in The Oregonian and Life magazine, and they drew international attention.
The first UFO Festival was held in 2000. It was intended to be a one-time celebration, but the UFO Festival was a hit. The next year, the downtown association put on a parade, and the festival has only grown over the years.
No festival was held in 2020, making this the 25th annual event.
![[Image: Event.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/GpRtLZdL/Event.jpg)
Costume contests — one for humans and one for pets — take place at 2 p.m. May 17.
This year’s speaker series, at the McMinnville Community Center, includes presentations by Brit Elders, Stanley Milford Jr., George Knapp with Jeremy Corbell, and Luis Elizondo. Some speaker events are sold out, but tickets for others are $28 and can be purchased online.
https://www.oregonlive.com/living/2025/0...event.html
The McMenamins UFO Festival takes place May 16-17, with a lineup that offers presentations by ufologists for the true believers and costumed silliness to entertain even the skeptics.
The roots of the UFO Festival trace back to May 11, 1950, when Evelyn Trent went out to feed the chickens on her family’s farm outside McMinnville and saw a large, metallic, disc-shaped object in the sky.
She called for her husband, Paul Trent, who snapped two photos of the object hovering above the fields before it vanished.
The photos were published in The Oregonian and Life magazine, and they drew international attention.
The first UFO Festival was held in 2000. It was intended to be a one-time celebration, but the UFO Festival was a hit. The next year, the downtown association put on a parade, and the festival has only grown over the years.
No festival was held in 2020, making this the 25th annual event.
Costume contests — one for humans and one for pets — take place at 2 p.m. May 17.
This year’s speaker series, at the McMinnville Community Center, includes presentations by Brit Elders, Stanley Milford Jr., George Knapp with Jeremy Corbell, and Luis Elizondo. Some speaker events are sold out, but tickets for others are $28 and can be purchased online.
https://www.oregonlive.com/living/2025/0...event.html
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
