UFO FESTIVAL

2023
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

OVERVIEW..............................................................................................................................................................................3
THE ROSWELL INCIDENT
BACKGROUND
OBJECTIVES
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

UFO FESTIVAL 2023..........................................................................................................................................................5

METHODOLOGY
ECONOMIC IMPACT
FESTIVAL HOT ZONES
EVENTS PLANNED & COORDINATED BY PUBLIC AFFAIRS

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS.....................................................................................................................................10
BENEFIT TO THE COMMUNITY
COLLABORATION

INVESTMENT TO COMMUNITY.................................................................................................................................. 12
ADVERTISING INVESTMENT
LOGISTICS EXPENSE
VOLUNTEERS

EVENT STATISTICS .......................................................................................................................................................... 14

PROFIT & LOSS SUMMARY........................................................................................................................................... 15

CONCERT ONLY
ALL EVENTS
DONATION FUND

LODGERS’ TAX.................................................................................................................................................................... 17

ANALYTICS............................................................................................................................................................................ 19
WEBSITE
FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM
NATIONAL ATTENDANCE

DATA COLLECTION......................................................................................................................................................... 22
SURVEY DATA
TICKET SALES
SANITATION ESTIMATION
OCCUPANCY ESTIMATION
VISIT WIDGET
SURVEY DATA GRAPHS

2
 OVERVIEW

THE ROSWELL INCIDENT

UFO Festival 2023 marked the 76th anniversary of the ‘Roswell Incident’. The purpose of holding
the UFO Festival is to increase lodgers’ tax and income for local businesses within the city of
Roswell, as well as bring notoriety to Roswell to increase sustained tourism throughout the year by
making it a familiar vacation destination.

Events were held at the County Courthouse lawn, the Roswell Visitor Center, the International UFO
Museum and Research Center, the Roswell Convention Center, DeBremond Athletic Field, and
Spring River Zoo. Many community organizations throughout town had events as well, such as the
Roswell Invaders and the Roswell Community Little Theatre.

BACKGROUND
UFO Festival was initially created in 1995 in order to promote and drive tourism to Roswell and
boost economic development. Over the years, it has evolved and has been produced by the city as
well as outsourced. The city reacquired the execution of the festival in 2021 and has continued to
collaborate with community partners. This is the City of Roswell's biggest annual event.

OBJECTIVES
Main objectives of UFO Festival 2023 included:

• Increase tourism
• Foster the arts, space & science and the
mystery of the Roswell Incident of 1947
• Increase community involvement
• Increase pride in the community
• Increase revenues for the municipality
and local businesses.
• Promote the city’s brand

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of this report is to review the cost and benefit to the City of Roswell
by looking at expenditures and revenue, as well as the economic impact for the
community created by the UFO Festival.

• The City of Roswell put on 20 out of the 30 citywide events for the UFO Festival.
• For this year’s festival, we focused on high-quality free family activities and
entertainment.
• We collaborated with at least nine organizations and/or businesses within the
community.
• The advertising and publicity expenses incurred by the city were an overall advertising
investment for all of the collaborators in addition to lodgers' tax advertising awarded to
MainStreet Roswell.
• Some items purchased will be used for future UFO Festivals, as well as other events,
and some of the expenditures will not need to be purchased again (estimated).
• The economic-impact estimate for the UFO Festival was $510,205.631 from the 477
concert tickets sold.
• The economic impact spent on Food and Beverage was estimated at $190,800.1
• The economic impact spent on commercial lodging during the week of UFO Festival
was $235,485.361.
• Gross Receipts Tax for the month of July 2023 was $59,113,495.86 for Accommodation
and Food Services, Arts, Entertainment and Recreation and the Retail Trade Sector. The
UFO Festival began June 30, 2023.

Gross Receipts Tax - July 2023

Accommodation and Food Services (USA/CAN/MEX)
Current $10,516,313.44
Other $1,954,032.96
Total $12,470,346.40
Arts, Entertainment and Recreation (USA/CAN/MEX)
Current $552,425.33
Other $75,204.92
Total $627,630.25
Sector 44-45 - Retail Trade (USA/CAN/MEX)
Current $42,619,815.85
Other $3,395,703.36
Total $46,015,519.21

1 https://www.newmexico.org/industry/news/post/event-economic-impact-calculator-release/

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 UFO FESTIVAL 2023

METHODOLOGY
Based on feedback from last year’s events, the city decided to keep planning and production of the
festival itself, rather than outsourcing the overall management of the majority of the event. J&S Pro
Sound, Inc. was contracted to provide the entertainment, stage, sound and lighting for the concerts.
A second night was added as requested by council.

Our goal this year was to provide an event that offered interactive experiences to festival attendees
along with high-quality entertainment and FREE activities for families and children.
Another goal was to try to get more of our community to be involved.

The following is the scope of work performed by Public Affairs in preparation and implementation
of the festival.

• Procured entertainment for the duration of the event, event production and contracts.
• Food and beverage arrangements for entertainment, staff and volunteers.
• Planned and created advertisements and signage for the event.
• Procured in-kind and monetary donations to help offset the cost of the event.
• Planned site locations and layouts, including emergency evacuation plans and traffic plans.
• Planned, developed and executed the run of show and logistics for the event.
• Trained and supervised volunteers.
• Managed check-in and information areas during event.
• The set up of tents, tables and chairs, equipment, fencing, and other equipment needed for
specific events.
• Procured and managed implementation of logistics for the event, including load-in and out of all
temporary structures, equipment and supplies.
• Arranged lighting and staging needs, production logistical requirements and effects.
• Communicated and collaborated regularly with other city organizations participating and/or
holding events for UFO Festival.
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 ECONOMIC IMPACT
The following chart is an estimation of direct and indirect impact on the economy
using the economic-impact calculator provided by the New Mexico Tourism
Department.1 The calculator uses ticket sales, number of attendees, length of
event, estimated spending on food and lodging, and other variables to generate an
economic-impact estimate. It takes into account the two concerts, as well as surveys.

1 https://www.newmexico.org/industry/news/post/event-economic-impact-calculator-release/
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 FESTIVAL HOT ZONES
Many of the events of this year’s UFO Festival were planned and organized by other parties. The
Public Affairs team collaborated, advertised, promoted and assisted in whatever way possible to
help make these events successful. These events include:

• Courthouse Lawn activities by MainStreet Roswell.

• Scavenger Hunt
• Live entertainment
• Pet Costume Contest
• People Costume Contest
• Main Street Parade
• UFO Museum UFOlogist Alien Invasion by International UFO Museum and
Research Center
• The Roswell Incident by Roswell Daily Record
• Night Sky Watch by the Roswell Daily Record
• Re-enactment Tour by the Roswell Daily Record
• Invaders Baseball Games by the Roswell Invaders
• Alien Chase by Roswell Recreation Center
• Golrak Experience at Spring River Zoo
• Galacticon and Sci-Fi Film Fest
• Roswell Museum String Quartet concert
• Alien Crazy Hair Salon by the Roswell Museum
• Robert H. Goddard Planetarium light shows and B-Movie series
• Roswell Community Little Theatre Battle of the Bands

7 Left to right: Alien Crazy Hair Salon, Roswell Incident Speakers, Live Entertainment at the Chaves County Courthouse.
 EVENTS PLANNED & COORDINATED
BY PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Galaxy Fair:
Stage area set up in the parking lot and grass areas outside of the Roswell
Convention Center with vendors, seating areas and activities for children
and families. Kids Zone activities and entertainment included:

• Foam Zone (local)

• Cooling Station with water games (local)
• Inflatable jumpers (local)
• Aerialists
• Asi Se Baila Folklorico Dancers (local)
• Legacy Dance Academy Dancers (local)
• Space Parade
• Music featuring a variety of genres- DJ Mel (local)
• Fire Dancers
• Drone Show
• Galaxy Cantina (local)
• Galactic Car and Bike Show (local)

Galaxy Fair Kids Zone:

This was set up indoors at the Roswell Convention Center to provide a cool
area for families to get out of the heat. Activities indoors included:

• Circus Boot Camp (interactive experience)

• Moon Maze (Immersive experience)
• Yard Games (kick darts, mini golf, corn hole and more)

Alien Crawl:
This was a tour of Roswell’s local restaurants and pubs. Destinations
included Black Cock Brewery, Antigua’s Mexican Cocina, Pasta Café, Farley’s,
Peppers Bar & Grill, Pecos Flavors Winery, Oasis Grill and Bar and Backdraft
Barbeque. Tours departed from the Roswell Convention Center bus stop and
took participants to four of the places listed above (depending on which
tour they chose). The tour ended at the Galaxy Cantina back at the Roswell
Convention Center. Alien Crawl A sold 56 tickets and Alien Crawl
B sold 54 tickets. Bus capacity was 56.

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 Headliner Siggno Concert on June 30 at DeBremond Field.

Friday Night Concert (Headliner Siggno):

The Public Affairs team, along with J&S Pro Sound, hosted a Tejano music concert featuring
Siggno along with supporting artists The Roulettes and I-10. J&S Pro Sound provided the beer
garden services. Ticket sales for this concert were 348, which included 7 VIP table sales of 8
people per table. Revenue was $13,105

Saturday Night Main Concert (Headliner Runaway June):

The Public Affairs team, along with J&S Pro Sound, hosted a country music concert featuring
Runaway June along with supporting artist Austin Van. Battle of the Bands (RCLT event) winner,
Matthew Palmer Band, opened at the concert. J&S Pro Sound provided the beer garden services.
Ticket sales for this concert were 129. Revenue was $3,480.

Total concert revenue was $16,585

UFO Walk of Fame at Pioneer Plaza:

This year we added another planet in recognition of Robert H. Goddard.
The ceremony was held at Pioneer Plaza.

Love Lock Wall at the Roswell Visitor Center:

This wall was donated by The Home Depot store 3510 just in
time for UFO Festival. This addition allows locals and visitors
a place to leave a lock with a message. This provides an
opportunity for people to potentially return to see their memory
left behind in years to come

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 COMM U N I T Y PAR T NER SHIP S
BENEFIT TO THE COMMUNITY
Creating and hosting events increases lodgers’ tax and income for local businesses
within the City of Roswell. It also puts a spotlight on Roswell as a vacation
destination in order to increase sustained tourism throughout the year. The UFO
topic continues to draw interest globally and attracts a substantial amount of
people, especially with the recent release of formerly classified documents related
to unidentified aerial phenomena data and intelligence. It is unknown how long
this topic will be popular and bring tourism to Roswell; nevertheless, it is certainly
benefiting our community.

Our goal this year was to provide an event that offered interactive experiences to
festival attendees along with high-quality entertainment and activities for families
and children. In concurrence, we also put forth great effort to engage more of our
community to be involved by having free family-fun activities to attend that are
unique experiences for Roswell locals and community members of the surrounding
area.

Asi Se Baila Folklorico Dancers.

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 COLLABORATION
UFO Festival 2023 was an extensive collaboration between the City of Roswell,
several local organizations, businesses and community members. A tremendous
amount of effort and planning was put into this annual festival. Many events were
organized by MainStreet Roswell, International UFO Museum and Research Center,
Roswell Daily Record, Galacticon, Roswell Community Little Theatre, Roswell
Invaders baseball team, Moon Rock Outfitters and more.

Community meetings were held and attended by representatives from many local
businesses, organizations and community members. There were a total of 30
events that happened during the three-day period in Roswell for the festival. The
City of Roswell put on 20 of these events and 10 of them were put on by other
organizations.

MainStreet AlienFest at
11 Chaves County Courthouse.
 IN V E S T M EN T TO THE C O M MUN ITY

ADVERTISING INVESTMENT
"BEAM ME UP FROM BORING"
The advertising and publicity expenses incurred by the city for the UFO Festival
were not only for city events put on by the City of Roswell, but an overall
advertisement for the festival and the various events happening in town along with
the organizations that put on those events. The goal of advertising was to benefit
the entire City of Roswell and bring visitors to town to visit our local businesses
and our area attractions.

Objective: Create awareness, generate interest and drive room nights. Campaign
dates ran May 8 - June 30.

The city spent $41,499 in advertising expense, which was applied to the Special
Events account of the Lodgers’ Tax Fund. However, the majority of the advertising
and publicity expense was for the overall UFO Festival, which included all of the
activities being put on by all collaborators, as well as various city departments.

LOGISTIC EXPENSES
Some of the expenses incurred in the budget for UFO Festival were also
advantageous for other organizations. For example, security guards hired by the
city also patrolled downtown. (The Parks Department picked up trash throughout
the weekend of the festival, benefiting the events happening in other areas of
town, including the businesses on Main Street. Payroll for Parks not included in
totals). Trash roll-offs and portable restrooms were placed in various areas to
benefit everyone working, shopping and visiting, or enjoying entertainment.

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 VOLUNTEERS
Volunteers were provided with UFO Festival volunteer T-shirts after signing in for
their designated assignments. These included setting up tents and signs, helping
attendees, selling merchandise and working the information and ticketing areas.

Making sure all of our volunteers were trained and had easy access to event/area
Team Leads was a priority to provide festival attendees a great experience. We
provided food and beverage, cooling outdoor wear, sunscreen, timely breaks and
other amenities to deal with the intense weather conditions.

We also provided additional UFO Festival volunteer shirts for people who
volunteered for more than one day, for a total of two volunteer shirts.

We had a total of 91 volunteers the week leading up to the UFO Festival. Using
the independent sector volunteer value of time for New Mexico for 20231 at
$26.95 per hour, the value of volunteer labor was calculated at $14,721.44

1 https://independentsector.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/VOVT-Report-2023.pdf

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 E VEN T S TA TIS TI C S
Golrak at Spring River Zoo:
Attendance: 55
Revenue: FREE (Director John Wright stated he did not have enough staff to collect tickets for this experience)

Alien Chase by Roswell Recreation:

Attendance: 204
Revenue: $7,140

Roswell Museum:
2023 Attendance: 2023 Museum Revenues:
Museum: 371 Admissions: $1,909
Laser Shows: 795 (out of 1152, 12 shows) Laser Shows: $11,666
*String Quartet: 24 (out of 75) Store Sales: $1,373
*Crazy Hair Salon: 79 (estimated max 75-90) TOTAL: $14,948
TOTAL: 1,269
*Foundation sponsored events and ticket sales went to them totaling $1,662 ($480 chamber concert
+ $1,182 crazy hair)
*String Quartet and Happy Hour were sponsored by RMAC Foundation who incurred costs for which
ticket revenues covered. Quartet was also sponsored by RSO.

Roswell Daily Record:

Reported 198 in tickets sold at their Roswell Incident event.

Surveys:
As of September 2023, 402 attendee surveys were completed.

QR Codes:
As of August 2023, our UFOFestival.com QR code was scanned 372 times.

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 P RO F I T & LOS S S U M M AR Y

Revenue Concert Only Revenue Concert Only

GA-Siggno 298 tickets at $20 per person $5,960.00
VIP Siggno Single Ticket -35 tickets at $75.00 per person $2,625.00
VIP Siggno Table - 7 tickets at $600 per table of 8 $4,200.00
VIP Siggno Parking - 8 tickets at $40 per parking $320.00
GA RunawayJune - 112 tickets at $20 per person $2,240.00
VIP RJ Single ticket -16 tickets at $75.00 per person $1,200.00
VIP RJ Parking - 1 ticket at $40 per parking $40.00
Total $16,585.00

Expenses Concert Only Expenses Concert Only

Booking Services $4,469.89
Entertainment (Headliners: Siggno 6/30 $15,000/Runaway June 7/1 $22,000) $37,000.00
Hospitality $2,507.78
Supplies $1,029.41
Production $28,715.03
Entertainment (Opening Talent: 6/30 I-10 $1500, Roulettes $1500 7/1 Austin Van $1500) $4,500.00
Total $78,222.11

PROFIT/ (LOSS) $(61,637.11)

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 All Events Revenue - UFO 2023 All Events Revenue
REVENUE REVENUE
KidsZone - Moon Maze $1,916.00
Alien Crawl $6,050.00
Merchandise (Water, Official Attendee package, Alien Crawl Discount Cards) $6,265.50
Concert Ticket Sales $16,585.00
Vendors $12,225.00
Total $43,041.50

Expenses Expenses
Galaxy Fair
Entertainment (Aerial Aura, Asi Se Baila, DJ Mel, OddLab, Robotron)
$10,680.34
Production for Galaxy Fair
$3,774.17
Kids Zone Interactive Exp
$3,134.00
Moon Maze (Ticketed Event $1 PP or $5 unlimited pass)
$700.00
UFO Walk of Fame
$2,400.00
Sky Elements Drone Show
$19,999.00
Alien Crawl Transportation
$900.00
Alien Crawl F&B
$2,372.32
Alien Crawl Supplies (Lanyard Cards)
$153.66
Concert Booking Service
$4,469.89
Entertainment (Headliners: Siggno 6/300$15,000 Runaway June 7/1 - $22,000)
$37,000.00
Hospitality
$2,507.78
Supplies
$1,029.41
Equipment Rental
$6,124.54
Supplies-Other
$987.13
Concert Production -from Donation Account
$28,715.03
Concert Entertainment - from Donation Account
$4,500.00
Branded lanyards - from Donation Account
$2,700.00
VIP Table rentals - from Donation Account
$720.00
Sam's Club
$1,487.47
Walmart (FY24)
$138.31
Total $134,493.05

PROFIT/ (LOSS) $(91,451.55)

Donation Account Funds Funds

UFO 2023 sponsorships/Donations $16,500.00
Beginning balance of UFO Donation Account $43,077.00
Total $59,577.00

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 LODGERS' TAX
Expenses from Lodgers' Tax Fund Funded by Lodgers Tax Expenses.
Portapotties $5,195.56
Janitorial $5,493.12
Security $11,700.00
Advertising - UFO Festival for City of Roswell $41,499.00
Advertising - AlienFest for MainStreet Roswell $16,238.00 (pending)
Total $80,125.68

LODGERS’ TAX
Lodgers' tax report does not reflect actual occupancy for the month of July as
it shows only monies collected for that reporting time. July occupancy was an
average of 54.51%.
Occupancy is inclusive of all hotels in our market. The STR report does not include
our 12 economy hotels. There were two hotels that did not report.

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18
 AN AL YT I C S

WEBSITE

TOP 10 COUNTRIES TOP 5 REFERRALS

1. United States 54,054 1. m.facebook.com 5,203
2. Canada 190 2. newmexico.org 4,813
3. Mexico 178 3. lm.facebook.com 4,777
4. United Kingdom 145 4. seeroswell.com 2,098
5. Germany 112 5. l.facebook.com 1,294
6. Australia 101
7. China 92
8. Brazil 59
9. Indonesia 58
10. India 56

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 FACEBOOK
DISCOVERY Last 28 Days

Post Reach 259,452

Post Engagement 69,406
New Page likes 607
New Page Followers 909

INTERACTIONS
Reactions 8,304
Comments 1,043
Shares 1,512
Photo views 18,439
Link clicks 10,376

OTHER
Hide all posts 6
Unfollows 0

INSTAGRAM

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 Survey data from holdmyticket.com

UFO FESTIVAL 2023

NATIONAL ATTENDANCE

Siggno Concert: $13,105.00 • Runaway June Concert: $3,480.00 •

UFO Official Attendee package: $4,000.00 (sold out) •
Alien Crawl Bus Tour: $6,050

Headliner Runaway June Concert on July 1 at DeBremond Field. Odd Lab fire dancer.

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 DAT A COLLECTION
DATA COLLECTION
The majority of UFO Festival events are free and visitors do not have to provide
data to receive a ticket. Estimating the numbers of visitors that were in town for
the UFO Festival is a difficult task.

The analysis in this report draws on the following data sources:

• UFO Festival Survey
• Ticket Sales Data
• Solid Waste Collection
• Visit Widget Data
• Occupancy Tax
• Gross Receipts Tax

SURVEY DATA
In an effort to obtain information about visitor demographics and geographic
segmentation, Public Affairs created a survey for attendees of the festival this
year. With this survey, we are able to determine ZIP code, overnight stays and
average dollars spent on food and beverage. The majority of the people who
completed surveys were from cities within New Mexico or from other states.
Among the participants, 24% of them were from Roswell or surrounding cities,
including Dexter and Artesia.

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 TICKET SALES
In addition to the survey, Public Affairs sold tickets to four out of the 20 events the
city organized. Alien Crawl A sold out at 56 tickets, Alien Crawl B sold 54 tickets,
Siggno Concert sold 348 tickets, Runaway June Concert sold 129 tickets, and
Moon Maze Immersive Experience sold a total of 1,780 tickets/passes during the
event weekend.

The following charts show the geographic segmentation of the attendees that
we have been able to obtain ZIP codes from. The majority of the people who
purchased tickets were from Roswell or surrounding areas.

Alien Crawlers enjoying Pecos Flavors Winery. Siggno Concert on Friday night.

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 OCCUPANCY ESTIMATION
The highest percentage of nights spent in Roswell during the UFO Festival was
2 nights at 28% according to the survey data. There were 402 individuals that
completed the survey. These 402 respondants indicated a total of 837 room nights
rented across the city.

Survey data from SurveyMonkey

MainStreet AlienFest 2023 parade. SkyElements Drone Show.

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 VISIT WIDGET
Public Affairs collaborated with Visit Widget to launch a new application for
Android and Apple iOS called SeeRoswell in June of 2022. This app continues
to be a useful tool to help visitors navigate around town and easily find local
businesses and attractions. During the week of the UFO Festival from June 25 -
July 1, the app had a total of 394 users, averaging 56 users per day. In comparison
to the previous week, which had 187 users, this gives us a 110% increase in app
usage during the week leading up to, and during, the UFO Festival.

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 SURVEY DATA GRAPHS
Q5. What were the top 5 festival events for which you came to town?

Popular Answer: Vendor Booths

Q6. Where did you find information about the Roswell UFO Festival prior to attending the festival?

Popular Answer: ufofestival.com

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 Q7. In total, how much did you spend at local restaurants on food and beverage?

Answered: 397 Skipped: 4

Popular Answer: $100

Q17. Have you previously attended the Roswell UFO Festival?

Popular Answer: This was my first time

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