Formerly named the Mid-Atlantic Gaming Festival, MAGFest is now the Music and Gaming Festival. Every year MAGFest aims to be the most enjoyable event of its kind: A videogame party with the largest videogame rock concert in the world. Aside from games and music, we also offer showings of videogame movies and cartoons, discussions on videogame culture, a LAN gaming area, and more!
Our guests have included the members of X-Strike Studios
and on the musical end, The Minibosses , NESkimos , Chromelodeon and Shawn Phase / Temp Sound Solutions .
Visit the official site for forums, events and other such info. MAGFest Home Page
Want some MAGFest gear? Check out:
MAGFestroid Merch
MAGFestius Merch
MAGFest 3 Merch
MAGFest 2 Merch
How about some hot buddy icons and stuff for you to put on your website or to use on forums?
What is MAGFest?MAGFest is a video and computer gaming festival run by fans, for fans. Some like to call us a convention, others like to call us a party. Both of these are somewhat accurate, but really, MAGFest is a unique experience that we hope you'll enjoy.
We're similar to most fan-based (in particular, anime, scifi, or fantasy) conventions, but we do things a little differently. We're a lot more laid-back. We don't have a huge dealer room. Our special guests tend to fit right in and socialize with the rest of the crowd. Our "costume contest" has a reputation of being a "costume roast". Lots of attendees set up games in their rooms and leave their door open to invite others inside.When is MAGFest?MAGFest is scheduled for Thursday through Sunday, the 4th through the 7th of January. We'll start doing setup, handling early registrations / general questions, and at least have something to do starting early afternoon Thursday for anyone arriving early. This is also a great time to wander around and get to know the hotel, guests and fellow con-goers.
Last year, we moved from October to January. This seemed to work out rather well for most people, and we received an influx of positive response for moving the convention closer to the new year's holiday. We know the convention might be a ways away, but if we can make one recommendation: ask for time off now, and remind your boss/professor/parents a few times before the actual dates. You'll regret it later if you don't.Where is MAGFest?MAGFest M5 will be held at the Sheraton Premiere in Vienna, VA. Some people refer to this area as Tyson's Corner, if that helps. The address is 8661 Leesburg Pike and the phone number is 703-448-1234
If you'd like to reserve a room online, just visit this page
Last year we had even more room reservations and some people mentioned they were unable to get a room. Make sure to mention "magfest" or "Music and Gaming Festival" when talking to the hotel, because we have a block of rooms sectioned off just for us.
Don't reserve your room at the last minute! This is not only a surefire way to get slim pickings on a room, but you might even have trouble getting one. Call at least a couple months in advance. When we announce the room block is open on the website, you can get one, and when we announce the room block is full on the website, the rooms are full.
There are a number of reasons to stay at the con hotel. For one, it's just a lot more fun. You'll be nextdoor to MAGFest-goers, so you can easily make friends with your neighbors without having the worry that they're some travelling professional. Typically it's around $89 a night for a room. If we fill more sleeping rooms, we make the hotel happier. Then the convention pays less pay out-of-pocket for our meeting space. This means we will have more money to put right back into the con and make it an even better year next year!
Directions:Just so you know, we've got facilities for you to share rides and rooms. Check out our database for folks that are interested in ride and room sharing.
Please remember that these directions are no substitution for a good map or mapping service. You may be able to rely on them solely, but getting a second opinion really can't hurt.
By Car:
Vienna, VA is in the Northern VA / DC Metro area. You want to somehow get yourself to 95, and then to the beltway around DC, which is 495. Whether you're coming from the north or the south, you want to take the west side of the DC beltway. The east side is the side that the regular 95 traffic gets directed onto, and you do not want to follow the regular 95 traffic.
Once you get on the beltway, you're looking for exit 47A which is highway 7 west towards Tyson's Corner. Take that, merge onto 7, and drive for a few minutes, and you'll eventually make a left onto Westwood Center Drive. At this point the hotel is the big tower hotel forward and to your right. You really can't miss it.
By Air:
The airport you really want to fly into is IAD (Dulles Int'l). If you plan to rent a car, you can take highway 267 east to 7 east. Then after a half-mile on 7 you'll make a right onto Westwood Center Drive and the hotel is right there.
The hotel offers a shuttle to and from the airport if you need one - just give them a call. Please remember that driving is a tipping service.
In the event you can't / won't fly into Dulles, you can fly into Reagan (DCA) or BWI. Please remember that directions are a bit more complicated to the hotel and no shuttle service is available if you can't fly into IAD.
Basic directions from DCA involve jumping on 66 west and following it to 267 west, then getting on 7 east and the hotel is a half-mile on the right just like from IAD.
Basic directions from BWI involve getting yourself to 95 south (you can use 195 west from the airport) and then follow the car directions.
What about the last MAGFest?
MAGFest M4 was held 13-15 Jan 2006, and we're pleased to say the convention basically sustains itself now (though not us). We grew to 150% yet again, and definitely pushed the limits of the Doubletree Hilton in Charlottesville, VA. Despite our fairly constant issues with not having enough staffers, this was our most organized year yet, and we think it shows.
MAGFest M3 was held 1-3 Oct 2004, and among other things, the festival (though not its owners, or vice versa depending on how you look at it) is finally out of debt. We still don't know how many people came but we're guessing we topped 500.
MAGFest 2.0 was held Halloween weekend (31 Oct - 2 Nov 2003) and was a fantastic social success. The con grew to about 150% its previous size, and everyone left with a smile on their face. MAGFest was even almost out of its debt rut from 2003 by M3.
The first MAGFest was held the 27-29th of September 2002, at the Holiday Inn Tanglewood in Roanoke, VA. The attendance was over 250.
Roanoke is the hometown of the former chairman and many staffmembers, which made it an easy choice to have the original MAGFest there. However, since it was purchased, it has been moved around for these main reasons:
We're constantly on the lookout for a more central location for attendees and special guests.
You'd be surprised how many people haven't heard of our locations.
It's nice when it's close to the chairman's house.
