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UFO Festival looks into the world of aliens
More articles on this topic: UFOsScientists, revelers and people who’ve been abducted come together in McMinnville
Marius Dekker doesn’t want to talk about his experience being abducted by aliens — even though he is giving a speech about the subject this weekend.
Vancouver, Wash., resident Dekker, 70, is a retired chemical engineer and scientist who will be speaking about his abduction experience at a workshop on UFOs at 10 a.m. Saturday.
“It is a very good possibility I was abducted. I can’t go into it on the phone,” he said, after being asked to explain his abduction experience.
“You’ll just have to come see my talk. I’m not going to get into the whole story on the phone. It first happened in Holland, when I was 16. I suspect I was abducted. I am examining these things now.”
Dekker’s workshop is part of the McMenamins UFO Festival, which is Friday and Saturday in downtown McMinnville. There also is a preview event at 7:30 tonight at the Kennedy School in Portland, featuring a screening of the 1994 Showtime movie “Roswell.”
The event is in its seventh year and brings the serious and the goofy sides of aliens and UFOs together. There are workshops and forums with speakers on UFOs and alien abduction, as well as more light-hearted events such as the UFO Costume Parade at 1 p.m. Saturday, which is followed by an Alien Pet Costume Contest at 2 p.m.
Dekker was selected to speak because of his research into abduction; he is one of the festival’s many scheduled speakers.
Dekker is retired, but worked as a chemical engineer in Alberta, Canada, and as a math, physics and chemistry professor at Capilano College in Vancouver, British Columbia.
He said he started believing in aliens later in his life.
“I grew up as a scientist and a real nerd and had little use for UFO talk,” he said. “Over the course of many years, I have reversed my feelings about them.”
This will be Dekker’s first time attending the UFO Festival in McMinnville. He refused to give any details on what he will talk about for his speech, other than to say he will chronicle the “long story” about why he believes he was abducted. He would say, however, that “missing time” is one of the main elements that abductees find they have in common.
“It’s the most telling sign,” he said. “People wondering, ‘Where have I been in the last three hours?’”
When asked if that could just be memory loss, Dekker explained: “People might think they just had a memory lapse, but there’s usually more to it.”
Another high-profile speaker at this year’s festival is Jesse Marcel Jr., who will give the keynote speech to promote his new book, “Roswell: It Really Happened.”
According to Tim Hills, the project historian with McMenamins Pubs, Marcel is a big name in the UFO community.
Marcel Jr. will speak at 7 p.m. Friday at the Mack Theater and will follow his speech with a reception and book signing in a tent that will be set up next to the Hotel Oregon on Evans Street.
Aside from people giving serious speeches about UFOs and aliens, there are those who go to the festival as an excuse to paint their faces and put on pairs of antennas to parade through downtown McMinnville.
The UFO Costume Parade is one of the highlights of the event each year and is organized by McMenamins and the McMinnville Downtown Association. The parade will feature more than 24 entries this year, including floats and marching bands.
The Salem-area Star Trek club USS Destiny plans to participate in this year’s parade. Salem resident Craig Martin, a member of USS Destiny, said members dressed in officer’s uniforms as well as others from a separate Klingon club will be on the back of a flatbed truck for the event.
“I’m going to be in a ‘Next Generation’ commander’s uniform because I’m the commanding officer of the club,” Martin said.
“We try to interact with other groups doing the same kinds of things we are. And it’s a good way to advertise for new members,” he said.
“Last year, we just had bales of hay on the truck. This year, the Klingons thought it would be cool to have a table in the middle with peace talks going on, which sounds like a lot of fun to me.”
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