Shag Harbour UFO Symposium and Festival August 14-15, 2009

A shot of the audience during the presentations on Saturday - photo by Steven H. MacLean

The good people of the Shag Harbour UFO Incident Society had organized yet, another successful weekend event, this being the second of such events. Even organizer, Cindy Nickerson, with the help of the members of the Society pulled off an interesting and engaging festival, with attendees from as far away as California and Pennsylvania.

The panelists, L-R: David M. Cvet, Dr. Stanton Friedman, Don Ledger, Chris Styles - photo by Steven H. MacLean

Friday opened with a number of events, which included a press conference at 10am, followed by a bar-b-que. Chris Styles delivered a teaser on his new book, which is nearing completion, and revealed that additional material which wasn't included in the previous book "Dark Object" will make its way into this publication, along with much more information and latest developments with the incident research. Later that day, a large number of visitors to the festival enjoyed a traditional Nova Scotia lobster boil hosted by the Stage Coach Inn. All of the presenters for the next day's symposium were on hand for questions and answers. A local musical ensemble entertained the guests after the dinner.

A pair of aliens having their way with Dr. Stanton Friedman - photo by Lorna Nickerson

Saturday's schedule began with a presentation by David M. Cvet entitled "From the depths of Shag Harbour" and presented much material on the findings of the dive expedition executed on July 20, 2009. Fascinating details of the dive, including the discovery of a pair of large depressions, approximately 18ft in diameter, and approximately 12 in deep at their centres. These may be two of the four anamolous sonar targets detected by the survey ship, Navicula in 1988. Following David's presentation and break, Dr. Stanton Friedman took the podium, and delivered a fascinating presentation on UFOs in general, touching upon abduction cases, such as Barney and Betty Hill, the first well documented and researched abduction case. Chris Styles took the podium after Stanton's presentation, and went into detail on new findings supporting the case, including the introdution of the co-pilot, Ralph Loewinger, who was flying PanAm Flight #161 at the time of the UFO incident, and who clearly described a string of 6 lights banking towards the left, and (while at 33,000 ft altitude) flew across the bow of the plane and disappeared into the distance. His story was extremely engaging, and the audience was at his full attention. The final presentation was made by Don Ledger, who presented numerous Canadian UFO incidents, in particular, those found in Nova Scotia. The day closed with the four speakers forming a panel, taking on direct questions from the audience.

The day ended with a talent show and a contest for the best alien costume. The visitors to the show were treated by talented local musicians and vocalists. Overall, an excellent event.