I'm looking into going to MAG this year.  I noted on http://magfest.org/panels that there was a masterclass on Fami last year and that a demoparty is lined up for MAG11.  I'm currently looking into buying a modest notebook laptop to take to the event and just shooting the community a message as to what are they like, what to expect, what exactly goes on during such an event, so forth.

I'm choosing to make the trip up almost exclusively for this, because I want to get "out there" to meet people and to improve my music/tracking abilities.