EVENT | ROSWELL
Missile silo (yes, a missile silo) to host Roswell festival
Three-day November event at former Cold War relic will provide unconventional backdrop for celebration featuring food, music, science, paranormal programming (and maybe some aliens)
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If 1969鈥檚 Woodstock festival promised three days of peace and music, a new three-day festival coming to Roswell this November promises peace, music, science, technology and possibly aliens.
Held at a decommissioned nuclear missile silo in an undisclosed location near Roswell, Atomika Festival will feature musical performances by Grammy-winning hip-hop producer Flying Lotus and electronic music pioneer Suzanne Ciani, as well as talks by Harvard University extraterrestrial researcher Avi Loeb and the hosts of 鈥淟ast Podcast on the Left,鈥� a paranormal comedy program, among others. For the full lineup, and to purchase tickets, visit .
鈥淭he best way to describe Atomika Fest is 鈥榓 classified interstellar transmission from the desert,鈥欌�� festival organizer Nik Halik said. 鈥溾�� We鈥檙e merging space science, immersive art, electronic music and speculative dialogue at a retrofitted Cold War missile silo.鈥�
The ultra-exclusive festival is limited to 1,000 participants. Tickets start at $545, with additional fees for on-site camping and accommodations ranging from $615 to $9,545.
Halik, an Australian-born venture capitalist, has long been fascinated by outer space.
鈥淎t age 4, I proclaimed to my parents that I wanted to become an astronaut, and my father was a communist, interestingly enough. I asked for a poster of Neil Armstrong to grace my bedroom wall. Instead, he gave me a poster of Yuri Gagarin, the first Soviet cosmonaut to represent humanity and basically view the earth (from outer space),鈥� Halik said.
Halik had a full-circle moment in 2007, when he was selected as a civilian cosmonaut. He trained at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, and served as the official backup for the Soyuz TMA-13 mission to the International Space Station.
Halik envisions Atomika as a way to move past Cold War-era political divisions, offering a more harmonious vision for humanity鈥檚 future.
鈥淎ll I really want to do is provide a wide canvas for a complex that was built for weapons of mass destruction, converting it to a calibrated constellation for forward-thinking creators, scientists, artists and musicians,鈥� Halik said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 now being designed as a deliberate poetic act of changing the polarity of the architecture. 鈥� We all come together in Roswell 鈥� (which) for a weekend, becomes the center of everything.鈥�
As the lights and music of the festival fade away each night, Halik imagines participants gazing up at the stars together.
鈥淎cross an expansive desert landscape 鈥� the stars will shine with a rare brilliance in one of the darkest locations,鈥� Halik said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really a dreamlike setting.鈥�
Logan Royce Beitmen is an arts writer for the 近距离内射合集. He covers visual art, music, fashion, theater and more. Reach him at lbeitmen@abqjournal.com or on Instagram at .
