In 2014, John White founded the Burien UFO Festival (BUFO), and it was good.

Actually, it was awesome and out of this world!

In 2019, after a successful five year run, White handed production of BUFO over to Discover Burien.

This past month, upon hearing that Discover Burien would not be able to hold the event in 2023, White felt the time was right to relaunch the event in true John White-style – he plans to return BUFO to its original form, re-combining the event with the Burien Film Festival.

BUFO will be held in Olde Burien, with an evening of live music, and a screening of the Burien Film Festival films.

As in years past, there will be fun activities for the kids, vendors, esoteric presentations, and food trucks.

Enter your best Alien and Man in Black costume in the BUFO Costume Contest with accompanying strut along the catwalk. Or enter as an ensemble! Winners will receive:

1st Place: $1,000
2nd Place: $500
3rd Place: $300

This year‘s Burien Film Festival filmmakers will be competing for a $5,000 prize. The contest theme is “The Maury Island Incident.”

Filmmakers are asked to interpret any part of the Maury Island Incident story in any genre. Entrants will be given access to HD-quality clips from the film that they can re-purpose.
Entrants will also have to highlight one of the 18 Burien neighborhoods.
The films are limited to 5 -7 minutes in length.
The deadline to submit will be July 31, 2023.

The event is produced by the Burien Film Festival LLC, which was founded by John White and Shelli Park. BUFO will be held in late August.

Please standby for more information…in the meantime, enjoy some video highlights from previous BUFOs: