HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (WBKO) – The Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter refers to a 1955 incident in which a family in the small town of Kelly claimed they were attacked by small alien creatures. The story remains one of the most famous and controversial cases in UFO history.
This year the community is celebrating the 69th anniversary of this event with a special festival.
The encounter began on the evening of August 21, 1955, when the Sutton family and their dinner guests reported seeing strange lights in the sky. When one family member went outside to investigate, he claimed to have seen small, glowing creatures floating above the ground.
“So they were so scared that they ran here to Hopkinsville to get the sheriff,” said Ginnie Pruitt, director of finance and operations at Visit Hopkinsville.
According to the story, the family felt threatened and retreated to their home, where they spent four hours shooting at the creatures, which they said were impervious to bullets. Terrified, the family eventually fled to Hopkinsville to ask the sheriff for help, which sparked a large-scale investigation by local police forces and military personnel from nearby Fort Campbell. Despite a thorough investigation, no concrete evidence of the creatures was found, so the incident remains shrouded in mystery.
Over the decades, the event has fueled debate about extraterrestrial life and inspired an annual festival in the small community of Kelly that grew in popularity over the years until it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year the festival makes a triumphant return to the Hopkinsville Visitor Center in Trail of Tears Commemorative Park.
One of the highlights of this year’s festival will be a special appearance by Geraldine Stith, the daughter of one of the original witnesses to the encounter.
“She travels all over the world telling the story,” Pruitt said.
As part of the festival, the film “ET” will also be shown in the evening, the origins of which are based on the story of the Hopkinsville Goblins.
“Steven Spielberg was researching Close Encounters of the Third Kind when he came across the Kelly story and started writing a very dark and scary movie called Night Skies,” Pruitt said. “But for some reason he changed his mind halfway through and made the movie a little more kid-friendly and lighthearted, and now we have E.T. because of the Hopkinsville Goblins story.”
Discarded elements from Spielberg’s original script were later used in other films such as Gremlins and Poltergeist. The story has even reached the world of video games.
“When they designed Pokémon, they actually looked to the story of the Hopkinsville Goblin and the diagrams they drew for the Pokémon Sableye,” said Brett Pritchett, learning coordinator for the Historic Hopkinsville-Christian County Museums.
In addition to food trucks and games, there will also be costume contests for children and adults with prizes for winners. The event begins at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, August 21 at 1730 E. 9th Street in Hopkinsville.
If you can’t attend the celebration this year, Visit Hopkinsville is already working hard to make next year’s 70th anniversary a spectacle you won’t want to miss.
“We have big plans, nothing is set in stone yet, but look for next year. We have big plans, a lot of cool stuff happening next year,” Pruitt said.
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