AlienCon Santa Clara 2016

​Sasquatch Syndicate at AlienCon 2016: Bigfoot Steals the Show on Halloween Weekend in Santa Clara​

Invited by Famous Monsters of Filmland and the Ancient Aliens team, Sasquatch Syndicate joined Giorgio Tsoukalos, George Noory, David Childress Jim Marrs, Linda Moulton Howe, Erich von Daniken and more for the inaugural AlienCon — and opened Friday night to a packed house of 150 Bigfoot believers.

There are weekends that pass quietly, and there are weekends that feel like the universe winked at you. AlienCon 2016 was very much the second kind.

When the History Channel, A+E Networks, the Ancient Aliens production team, Cosmic-Con, and the legendary Famous Monsters of Filmland announced they were joining forces to launch the first-ever AlienCon at the Santa Clara Convention Center over Halloween weekend, they promised something the convention world had never quite seen — a three-day immersive gathering of researchers, scientists, skeptics, true believers, cosplayers, podcasters, paranormal investigators, and full-tilt fans of the unexplained. What they delivered was a sold-out, electric, slightly haunted celebration of every "what if" that has ever kept a human being awake at night.

And right in the middle of it all — booth lights blazing, plaster cast tracks on display, podcast mics warm and ready — was Sasquatch Syndicate.

Why a Bigfoot Group at an Alien Convention?
The question got asked a lot during the weekend, usually by someone holding a glow-stick cocktail and a freshly autographed Erich von Daniken book. The answer is more obvious than it sounds.

AlienCon was never strictly about extraterrestrials. It was built, from day one, as a tent for the unexplained — a meeting point for cryptids, contactees, ancient mysteries, lost civilizations, monster movies, and high-strangeness research of every flavor. Famous Monsters of Filmland, one of the founding partners of the convention, had championed Bigfoot since the days of Forrest J Ackerman and the original Patterson-Gimlin frame. Ancient Aliens, in its own way, had spent years asking whether Sasquatch fit somewhere on the same map as megalithic ruins and Nazca geoglyphs.

So when the invitation came, courtesy of the Famous Monsters team and the Ancient Aliens organizers, to bring Sasquatch Syndicate into the lineup for the inaugural AlienCon, it wasn't a stretch. It was a perfect fit.

"The minute they reached out, we knew this was the right room," said John Ferguson, Business Development Officer for Sasquatch Syndicate. "Famous Monsters of Filmland and the Ancient Aliens crew understood something that a lot of conventions miss — these subjects belong together. Cryptozoology, ufology, ancient mysteries, the paranormal — they all live in the same neighborhood. They invited us specifically because Sasquatch fit perfectly with what they were building over Halloween weekend."

A Friday Night the Syndicate Won't Forget
The official speaking engagement happened Friday evening, and to put it gently — the room was stuffed. Roughly 150 attendees packed the hall to hear Sasquatch Syndicate founder and host Chuck Geveshausen take the stage to talk about the legend of Bigfoot, the science behind the search, and the work the Syndicate is doing to bring credibility, community, and genuine research to a field too often dismissed as folklore.

Chuck did what Chuck does. He worked the room. He told the stories. He laid out the data. He talked about the Syndicate's nonprofit mission to support legitimate Sasquatch research, the ongoing podcast that has become a meeting ground for witnesses and investigators, and the long-running argument that this animal — whatever it turns out to be — deserves to be studied, not laughed at. There were laughs. There were chills. There were the kind of long, attentive silences a speaker only gets when the audience is leaning in.

And then came the kicker. The slot immediately following Chuck's talk that evening belonged to none other than the late, great Jim Marrs — the legendary investigative journalist whose work on the JFK assassination ("Crossfire," the basis for Oliver Stone's "JFK") and on UFO history ("Alien Agenda") made him one of the most influential voices in alternative research for four decades. To open the night for Jim Marrs was, by any measure, a genuine honor.
"Standing on that stage Friday night, looking out at 150 people who came to hear about Bigfoot, and knowing Jim Marrs was up next — that was a moment," Ferguson said. "It was amazing to see the enthusiasm. People weren't there to be polite. They were there because they cared. They had questions. They had stories. They had encounters they'd never told anyone before. That energy is what this whole thing is about."

The Lineup — A Who's Who of the Unexplained
AlienCon 2016 read like a fever dream of every late-night radio show and cable documentary you've ever loved.
Giorgio A. Tsoukalos — yes, the hair, the man, the meme — anchored the weekend as the face of Ancient Aliens. He was joined on the main stage by his Ancient Aliens co-stars and contributors, including David Childress, the indefatigable explorer and author of the Lost Cities series, and investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe, whose decades of work on cattle mutilations, crop circles, and government UFO disclosure made her one of the weekend's biggest draws.
Coast to Coast AM host George Noory moderated panels and held court in a way only George can, turning Q&A sessions into the kind of intimate, slightly conspiratorial conversations his overnight listeners have come to love.
Author and researcher Erich von Daniken — the man who started the entire ancient astronaut conversation with "Chariots of the Gods?" back in 1968 — made a rare appearance and was treated by the crowd like the elder statesman he is.

The late Jim Marrs, as mentioned, brought his Friday night fire on JFK, the deep state, and the UFO question. Travel Channel and Ancient Aliens contributor Nick Pope, the former British Ministry of Defence UFO desk officer, walked attendees through the realities of government-level investigation. And the Famous Monsters of Filmland contingent brought a heavy dose of classic creature-feature spirit to the proceedings, complete with screenings, panels, and a costume contest that turned the convention floor into something out of a Forrest Ackerman scrapbook.
Add to that a packed schedule of breakout panels, a vendor floor crammed with researchers, authors, artists, and investigators, an exhibition of UFO photographs and artifacts, screenings of classic and new content, and an after-hours scene that turned every hotel bar within a mile of the convention center into a debate club — and you have AlienCon 2016.

Coffee, Laughs, and Tales From the Other Side

One of the moments the Sasquatch Syndicate team will be telling for the rest of their lives happened off-stage, away from the cameras.

Saturday morning, somewhere between panels, George Noory and Chuck Geveshausen ended up at the same coffee setup. What started as a polite hello turned into a long, easy conversation about long nights, strange callers, weird woods, and the kind of stories you only really tell other people who have heard them too.
"Sharing coffee and laughs with George Noory, swapping tales from the other side — that's not something you put on a business card," Ferguson said. "But moments like that are why we do this. George has heard everything. Chuck has heard a lot of it himself, just from a different angle. Watching them trade stories was a reminder that this whole field is really one big conversation, and we're all just trying to figure it out together."

Key Takeaways
A few things became unmistakably clear over the course of the weekend.

The audience for serious cryptid and paranormal research is not a fringe. It is a community, and it is enormous. A Friday-night Bigfoot talk pulling 150 people in a building also hosting Giorgio Tsoukalos, Linda Moulton Howe, Erich von Daniken, and George Noory is not a fluke. It is a signal.

The walls between fields are coming down. UFO researchers wanted to talk about Sasquatch. Bigfoot researchers wanted to ask Nick Pope about military radar data. Ancient Aliens fans were lining up at the Sasquatch Syndicate booth with tracks, photos, and stories from their own backyards. The siloing of the unexplained is ending, and AlienCon proved it.

Famous Monsters of Filmland and the Ancient Aliens organizers got it right. By inviting Sasquatch Syndicate into the founding AlienCon lineup, they signaled that cryptozoology belongs at the same table as ufology, ancient mysteries, and classic monster culture. Halloween weekend is the right time. Sasquatch is the right subject. And a packed room of 150 enthusiasts is the right proof.

Sasquatch Syndicate is going to be busy. The booth conversations alone generated more leads, witness contacts, and research collaborations than any single event the organization had attended to date.

Looking Forward

AlienCon 2016 was the first of its kind. It will not be the last. The Sasquatch Syndicate team left Santa Clara on Sunday night with hoarse voices, full notebooks, a stack of new business cards from researchers across half a dozen disciplines, and a renewed sense of why this work matters.

"This is the beginning of something," Ferguson said. "Famous Monsters of Filmland and Ancient Aliens didn't just throw a convention. They built a meeting place for everyone who has ever looked up at the sky, or out into the woods, and wondered. Sasquatch Syndicate is proud to have been part of the first one. We will absolutely be part of the next one."

For Sasquatch Syndicate — the Washington State nonprofit dedicated to advancing the research and discovery of Sasquatch — AlienCon 2016 was more than a convention appearance. It was a homecoming for a subject that has lived too long on the margins, and a reminder that when 150 people sit down on a Friday night in late October to hear about Bigfoot, the legend isn't fading. It's growing.

Halloween weekend will never be the same.

By Chanelle Elaine, Chief Officer Sasquatch Syndicate Inc.