Pahrump Alien Conference 2026: Who spoke and who attended?

After a large showing at last year’s inaugural event, the Pahrump Alien Conference returned over the weekend, bringing together those interested in the extraterrestrial.

“It’s better this year,” Joseph De La Torre told the Pahrump Valley Times at the show.

De La Torre, a local ufologist, also known as the Pahrump Alien Guy, once again hosted this year’s sold-out Pahrump Alien Conference on Saturday, Oct. 24 at the Pahrump Nugget Hotel and Casino. The Pahrump Alien Guy started this year’s event as the first featured live speaker, showcasing some of the videos he’s taken of UFOs.

“I don’t have a PhD. I’m not a scientist but I know what I see, I know what I study. I research,” De La Torre explained during his presentation.

Mike Bara, a well-known contributor to the popular History Channel show Ancient Aliens and New York Times best-selling author, also spoke at this year’s conference.

“It’s great to be back here. It’s a great crowd,” Bara said. “People have a lot of enthusiasm for the subject in this area because of the legacy of Art Bell and [the 1996 film] “Mars Attacks!” Pahrump is where the Martians landed when they invaded [in that film]. So we have this great history here, and it’s just great to take advantage of it.”

Jesse Marcel III, the grandson of Jesse Marcel, a prominent name in the Roswell incident, was another one of the conference’s featured experts.

“I think that the UFO field, if you take the craziness out of it and you look at it as something more, people are more open-minded there, what’s the potential and the possibility, I think that actually is instilling,” Marcel told the Pahrump Valley Times. “Obviously, Pahrump’s a fairly rural, small town, and I think that actually the number of people who have come here is amazing for this size of a town. Everybody I talk to is from Pahrump, so I would say that it’s engaging. If anything, it’s just so mind-opening. Whether you believe in this stuff or not, it’s not the point. The whole idea is that I’m willing to listen to it. I think that’s pretty awesome.”

Rounding out the lineup of live featured speakers was Thom Reed of the Berkshire UFO Incident and author Kathy Porter.

“The crowd was very receptive and very warm and friendly,” Porter enthused. “The people that are just walking around, they’re so open to learning about my books and knowing about why I wrote them. This is one of the most comfortable events I’ve ever been to.”

After the live speakers finished their respective presentations, an array of more ufology notables appeared virtually: former FBI agent and TV personality Ben Hansen, Laura Eisenhower, UFO researcher and great-granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, UFO investigator and researcher Donald Schmitt, UFO filmmaker Darcy Weir, UFO witness and Dokken drummer BJ Zampa and Bigfoot researcher Marie Dumont.

“There’s going to be people from all over the United States show up. So that’s going to be exciting,” the Pahrump Alien Guy explained before the virtual section of the event began.

Vendors, many selling alien-themed crafts and goods, were the other major component of Saturday’s event. While the room with speakers was ticketed, the shopping section was free to attend and open to the public.

“I loved it last year and it was a lot busier than we thought it was going to be. This year, it’s a lot bigger than it was last year. It’s very nice,” explained local crafter Sharon Stacks, who operates Sharon’s Collectables, which specializes in handmade candles and custom-made diamond art.

Denise Souder, also known as the Pahrump Teddy Bear Lady, was set up next to Stacks’ booth, selling her custom-made teddy bears.

“I love it, first of all. I don’t think I’ll ever not do it because you get a whole different group of customers through with this,” Souder enthused. “It is bigger, and it’s better. I’m telling you, we’ve got some big names that come right in here to Pahrump and that’s pretty impressive. I’m an alien geek so, I’ve been down the alien hole. To see people like Mike Bara here in our own little town of Pahrump is really exciting.”

Solid3DMemories, a Pahrump-based company that designs all of its own products in-house, was also present in the vendor section at last year’s inaugural event. Patrick Browning of Solid3DMemories said it was very fun creating all of the 3D-printed alien wares.

“We’ve heard some interesting stories from attendees this year, which is great, and people remembering last year, then excited to have it again this year,” Browning elaborated. “I think that’s the biggest thing is having an event that they can come back to and reconnect with people they met last year has been exciting for the attendees and as a vendor for me to be able to say, ‘I have a new product. What we had last year is gone. This is the new product line for this year.’ So we try to change it up. It’s been fun.”

The De La Torre posts videos of his UFO sightings on YouTube at youtube.com/@PahrumpAlienGuy.

De La Torre thanks his significant other Bridjette Whaley and technical director Mikey Roohan for helping make this year’s conference possible.

Contact reporter Elijah Dulay at edulay@pvtimes.com