The Shag Harbour UFO Expo is opening up a room for experiencers to open up with each other to share their stories.
Experiencers are those who have reported contact with extraterrestrial beings, which on the Hynek scale would be considered close encounters of the third kind.
Event organizer Danny Reid decided to introduce the stand-alone discussion in a separate room at the Rodd Grand Hotel in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia after attendees requested it in 2023.
One lady, an attendee from Quebec, flew down and spent all three nights at the hotel and was passionate about having been abducted since she was a child. She shared as much with Reid on the bus ride to Shag Harbour from Yarmouth, and she added that experiencers know who other experiencers are without even talking with them.
“That’s what keeps me motivated to put these on and just have the venue for people to hear from the experts and meet other folks,” Reid said. “It makes your skin tingle when you think about it.”
Yarmouth is 70 kilometres northwest of Shag Harbour, but the Expo takes attendees on a tour bus down to the original crash site, as well as to the secret U.S. military base at CFB Shelburne, where UFO researcher Chris Styles presents the Shelburne Story.
The Shelburne incident happened on October 12, 1960. Eight Canadian and 10 U.S. warships were at the mouth of Shelburne Harbour participating in a mine-sweeping training mission. Divers working on the training mission dove to the bottom of Shelburne Harbour and discovered two UFOs with alleged extraterrestrials in the water.
“We take you right to the locations, the next day on a bus tour and not every place can do that,” Styles said. “It is unique. It’s a word that’s thrown around a lot here. It’s totally apt.”
Also on hand will be the original witnesses of the Shag Harbour incident on October 4, 1967, including Laurie Wickens, the chairman of the Shag Harbour Incident Society Museum.
Few events in Canada connect Canadians with the ufology community, aside from the recent Contact and Disclosure Symposium in Toronto in April 2024, as well as the Alien Cosmic Expo in October 2019.
“It’s a wasteland here until recently,” Styles said, adding he spoke at last year’s Halifax Paranormal Symposium. “Elliott (Van Dusen) and I have worked on things together and both conferences have been quite supportive of each other.”
The Halifax Paranormal Symposium is on October 12 in Halifax, while the Shag Harbour UFO Expo is September 27 to 29.
This is the third annual Shag Harbour UFO Expo, and this year they’ve expanded the schedule to include the entire weekend.
Last year they had a meet and greet on Friday evening and a sky watch party with MUFON Canada’s national director, Eric Tessier.
This year, they’re on the same schedule, but will also air a Shag Harbour documentary, and a movie screening, in addition to a second sky watch event.
Also featured at this year’s event are speakers Bryce Zabel of the podcast Need to Know, Manitoba-based science writer Chris Rutkowski, documentarian Jennifer Stein and researcher Preston Dennett. UFO enthusiast and podcaster Martin Willis is the acting Master of Ceremonies.
“I think beyond just listening to world-class ufologists and being in a room with like-minded people, you really walk away with a sense of family,” Reid said. “It’s an experience on that weekend that has a bit of a different field than just attending a conference.”
Photos courtesy of Danny Reid