Matty Roberts, a vape kiosk retail clerk at Valley Plaza Mall in Bakersfield, California, created the event on June 27, 20193. Roberts moderated the Facebook shitposting page "Shitposting cause I'm in shambles" and got the idea after watching conspiracy theorist Bob Lazar and filmmaker Jeremy Corbell on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast on June 20, 20193.

The event was titled "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us" and was scheduled for 3 a.m. on September 20, 2019, in Amargosa Valley, Nevada2. Its description read: "If we Naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Lets see them aliens"2. Roberts later said the event only had about 40 responses three days in before it unexpectedly went viral3.

The meme drew serious media coverage from outlets including Newsweek, The Washington Post, and multiple television networks23. The U.S. Air Force issued official warnings, the FBI monitored the situation, and the FAA closed airspace near the base3. It was one of the few internet jokes to prompt a direct military response.

Lil Nas X tying his "Old Town Road" remix video to the raid blurred the line between meme culture and mainstream music3. Local businesses in Nevada prepared products for visitors, and the event had measurable economic effects in the region3.

The brand pile-on documented by Mashable became its own case study in how corporate social media teams try (and usually fail) to participate in organic internet humor1. The overwhelming "silence, brand" backlash showed that audiences can tell when a joke is being co-opted for marketing1.

Area 51's reputation as an alien conspiracy magnet stretches back to the 1950s, when UFO sightings near the facility (actually related to classified U-2 spy plane testing) fueled decades of speculation2. The CIA didn't officially acknowledge Area 51's existence until 2013, and in 2015 published a brief history tracing its origins to Lockheed's first U-2 tests in 19552. The base's official name, the Nevada Test and Training Range at Groom Lake, never stuck. Everyone called it Area 51, a name derived from its Atomic Energy Commission map designation2.

This backdrop made Roberts' joke event land perfectly. When the Facebook page took off in late June and early July 2019, it tapped into a specific flavor of internet humor: the mass coordination of something obviously impossible, framed with total sincerity. The meme worked because everyone was in on the joke, but the sheer scale of participation (millions of RSVP clicks) created a genuine question about whether anyone might actually show up3.

The U.S. government took notice quickly. On July 10, Air Force spokeswoman Laura McAndrews told The Washington Post that officials were aware and warned that "the U.S. Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets"3. Nellis Air Force Base told KNPR that "any attempt to illegally access the area is highly discouraged"3. The FBI stated they would monitor the situation3. The Federal Aviation Administration posted temporary flight restrictions over areas near the base3.

Things got weird when the military's own public relations office, the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS), posted a tweet on September 20 showing military personnel and a B-2 stealth bomber with the caption "The last thing #Millennials will see if they attempt the #area51raid today"3. The tweet was deleted, and DVIDS issued an apology3.

In Nevada, Lincoln County officials drafted emergency declarations anticipating an influx of visitors to the sparsely populated desert region3. Roberts partnered with promoter James Estopinal, known as "Disco Donnie," to channel the energy into a music festival called Alienstock in Rachel, Nevada3. A second festival, Storm Area 51 Basecamp, was organized in nearby Hiko3.

When September 20 actually arrived, reality was far quieter than the meme. About 150 people showed up at the two entrances to Area 51, and none got inside3. An estimated 1,500 attended the Alienstock and Basecamp festivals3. The event fizzled in person but had already done its cultural work online, generating months of content and conversation.

The brand participation angle drew its own commentary. Mashable cataloged the worst corporate attempts, from Funyuns accidentally dunking on their own ingredients to MoonPie wasting their obvious space connection on a boring tweet1. The overwhelming response in the replies was "silence, brand," a catchphrase that captured frustration with companies hijacking organic internet humor1.

Roberts, who started the whole thing as a joke, expressed worry during the buildup that the FBI might visit him3. He publicly disavowed responsibility for any casualties had anyone actually tried to raid the base3. The event also spawned parody raids targeting other locations, including Fun Time Kidz and a Latter-day Saints vault in Utah, some of which drew police attention3.