Festivalgoers laugh in the face of otherworldly danger when confronted by a toothy creature during last year’s parade on Third Street.
Marcus Larson
News-Register file photo

Whether you're young or old, human or gray, a longtime resident or from way out of town, McMinnville's annual UFO Festival has something just for you.

For the serious believer, McMenamins Hotel Oregon hosts a scholarly conference with a lineup of speakers renowned around the world - and, possibly, beyond.

For the more fun-loving, the McMinnville Downtown Association adds some more light-hearted events, including an attention-getting parade and an alien costume contest for pets.

The UFO Festival has been an annual event since 2000, the 50th anniversary of the Trent UFO sightings. Paul and Evelyn Trent saw and photographed a disc flying over their farm southwest of McMinnville. Their photos were published in the Telephone Register, a forerunner of the News-Register.

Get out your "Star Wars" gear, space ships or tin-foil headgear for the Alien Costume Parade, which will travel west on Third Street starting at 1 p.m. Saturday on Third Street.

Entries will gather in the Granary District - the entry is on Eighth Street, between Lafayette Avenue and the railroad tracks. Judging will take place at 11:30 a.m.; entries that aren't being judged need to be there by noon.

MDA will award honors for the Best Alien Float, Best Alien Group, Best Alien Child and Best Alien Male & Female, who also will be named king and queen of the parade.

Parade entry forms are available on the MDA website, www.downtownmcminnville.com, or from the downtown association office at 105 N.E. Third St., McMinnville. Each entry - whether it's one float or a group of 50 walkers - must pay a $10 entry fee and sign a hold-harmless agreement, in case there are any laser or force-field mishaps.

Before the parade, children can make their own didgeridoos from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on the U.S. Bank plaza, Third and Davis streets. Materials and paint will be provided free.

The didgeridoo is an ancient mouth instrument from Australia. It's traditionally made from the trunk of a eucalyptus tree. Players blow into the didgeridoo to produce eerie sounds.

Members of Vivid Curve, a didgeridoo band, will help kids make the instruments. Children can join in when Vivid Curve marches in the parade.

Vivid Curve members include Jeff Cooper, master performer on the didgeridoo; percussionist Ronnie Lamb and mandolin/guitar player Tony Sciola.

After the parade, at 2:30 p.m., pets can vie for their own awards in the Alien Pet Costume Contest, hosted by Critter Cabana Pet Shop.

Pets will gather on the U.S. Bank plaza. All entries will receive prizes and gift certificates, and the top three pets will receive special goodies.

As for the more serious segment of the festival, McMenamins will host a program Friday evening featuring Kathleen Marden and Stanton Friedman, co-authors of "Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience." The 2007 book, subtitled, "The True Story of the World's First Documented Alien Abduction," details the Hills harrowing experience in 1961.

Marden, the Hills' niece, is a social worker, educator and hypnotherapist who served as director of field investigator training for MUFON. Friedman is an internationally recognized UFO researcher and former physicist.

Marden and Friedman's program will start at 7 p.m. Friday in the McMinnville Community Center. Doors will open at 6 o'clock. Admission is $10 per person. Friday evening, the Hotel Oregon will have live music by blues artist Gavin Wahl-Stephens and, in a different room, by Kirby Swatosh and the Moon Rock Patrol. Both bands will start at 7 p.m.

A 21-and-over scotch and cigar dinner will start at 8 p.m. Salmon, gorgonzola tartlet, smoked potato crisps and chocolate mousse join the drinks and smokes on the menu. Cost is $30 per person.

Saturday morning at 10 a.m., UFO witnesses Kris and Marc Bales will describe their sighting in Northern Idaho back in September 2000. While on an overnight hunting trip, the brothers and two other men witnessed an enormous, triangular object hovering 200 feet above them. The report they filed with the National UFO Reporting Center includes the remark, "Although this exceeded the limits of our known comprehension we felt privileged to have witnessed this most incredible piece of equipment."

Admission is $10 to the Bales' brothers program in the community center. Following their talk, Peter Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center, will discuss cases reported in 2008.

Keynote speaker Linda Moulton Howe, an investigative journalist who specializes in UFO phenomenon, will take the stage at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 16. Tickets are $10.

Moulton Howe, a graduate of Stanford University, is a reporter and editor for Earthfiles.com and reporter for "Coast to Coast AM with George Noory" and "Dreamland Online" with Whitley Strieber. At the UFO festival, she will use videotaped interviews, slides and illustrations to will present one family's eyewitness account of a 1974 military encounter with a UFO in Albuquerque, NM.

Combination tickets also are available for the speakers' programs. Cost is $15 for any two ticketed events or $25 for all three, available at the door or from www.ufofest.com.

Other events during the weekend include a performance of the 1938 Orson Welles classic "War of the Worlds" by Willamette Radio Workshop at 2 p.m. Saturday in Hotel Oregon. A food and concessions tent will be set up outside the hotel Friday evening and all day Saturday. Kirby Swatosh and the Moon Rock Patrol will play in the hotel's Cellar Bar again at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Adults can cap off the weekend at McMenamins annual Alien Costume Ball Saturday night. Big Mama Gayle and Her Sugar Daddies will perform rock 'n' roll. Prizes will be awarded for the most comical or well-done space outfit.

For information contact the McMinnville Downtown Association at 503-472-3605 or visit the McMenamins UFO Festival website at www.ufofest.com.