Here's a first impression report from Bryan Liss on E-Fest:
-------------------------------------------------------

I ended up liking E-fest and would go again!!  Its an easy two hour drive for me - so a day trip is not too much of a strain.  At $20 its not too expensive and my good bag had $14 or so of that in Zap CA products (which I need) as a return.  The lines, although they initially looked daunting were not bad at all.  My typical wait was only a few minutes and I spent the time enjoying talking w/ my neighbors - that was fun!!  Folks were friendly.  The height of the venue was nice for me and I think would be great for you guys.  More light than JR too.  With roughly a dozen flying stations, the airspace wasn't even close to as crowded as JR which was nice for me.  Still saw plenty of mid airs though.  Horizon had more folks to talk to and more senior folks and Hobbico had a nice booth.  As far as vendors, Luke's and Lazertoys were there (the latter much to my regret) and there was a local hobby shop too ...  Neat light vendor and the guy from JR that was selling mad dog batteries and a different, less profile foamie vendor ...  Prices weren't bad, but didn't seem quite as low as JR.  Spots seemed smaller and there were a bit less bits and pieces ...  No one selling power supplies, soldering aids, fewer connectors, mototrs escs etc., but they were there ...
 
Oh the micro area was not nearly as crowded as at JR and no lines there!!  Nice place to fly the helicopters (non 3D) - I landed successfully on the carrier several times (had an exciting near miss or two as well :-)).  Smaller than at JR though.
 
Did I like it more than JR - NO!!
 
First off they have a very significant number of spectators at $5 a pop.  I understand why they do it - that has to help defray a lot of their costs and its a great way to get more folks into the hobby - all good!!  However, not getting there Friday afternoon, I had to struggle to find table space and the space I found was right in the main aisle and it was a little unnerving to leave stuff out when you went to fly with herds of people streaming by.  Didn't have a problem though and I didn't hear of anyone who did, vendors included.  I couldn't say the same of JR.  Next year, I think I'd go up Friday afternoon and fly, fly fly well into Friday evening.  Stay Saturday into the evening contests and come home ...
 
Not only was table space limited (although there was much more than JR!), but I saw very little power.  Maybe I missed it.  I grabbed the spot on the table in the main aisle that I did because it was right next to a vendor who let me grab a spare outlet and plug in my power strip - score!!  Lots of folks had brought car batteries (or fancily packaged car batteries).  Dave from the Southside club was there (although I really didn't get a chance to talk w/ him - Chuck can you let me know his email so I can apologize, thanks!!) - he might be able to tell us more about power as I didn't spendf a lot of time trying to suss it outr after I found some (was running far behind where I wanted to be).  It may be there was plenty of power over on the other side where the 3d foamies and helicopters were camped.  Lot of tables over there too.  Definitely something to know about and plan for next year.  My 4 port Celectra charger stopped working too.  AC Adapter is fine (I know I plugged it into someone elses w/ permission and it worked fine).  Maybe a loose wire inside.  Would appreciate some help looking ... Grrr ...
 
Although the ceiling is high, my feeling is the venue is not near as large as JR.  I liked the size at JR.
 
There was more light yes, but over in the micro area given placement, light through the windows and time of day, it could be glaring makign flying difficult.  No problem on the main flight line though.  As I said the micro area was small and the 3D heli area quite small.  On the (sort of) plus side, two micros at a time could have the area to themselves ...  Wait time in the 3D helio area I would guess at 15 minutes or so, maybe a bit longer ...  That would have been a pain if we hadn't found we could fly the helis (sport) in the micro area.  There were some neat things going on in the micro area.
 
The 3D foamie area was relatively small, but had some neat obstacles and didn't seem that crowded.  Not sure about line wait - didn't check that.  I think you guys would have enjoyed that area.  Plenty of light 3D foam in the main area w/ the wonderful high ceiling.
 
Couldn't hear prize announcements well at all.  Didn't see prizes out to get excited about - not sure what anyone won or how nice prizes were in general.  Really missed the lack of the bullseye scramble too - that was fun at JR!!!
 
Really didn't like that at 5:30 open flying basically stopped and until 9PM or so there were events.  Again, as much as for the spectators as flyers.  Some were fun to watch (ask me about the gauntlet), some were less so.  There was 3D foamie flying and 3D heli flying - good but not great (although one ofthe heli pilots was Kyle Stacey and I heard the foamie pilots were top class as well).  I think I just liked the contests at JR more (more local pilots involved and more fun announcing, believe it or not) and there wasn't an open session afterwords to stay for (and I knew I was staying over so it wasn't as urgent).  Bottom line, didn't leave a good taste in my mouth ...
 
Oh and no Chuck, Mark, Bill or ... Wimps!!!  :-)
 
End result, mixed, worth seeing, worth a trip back, but I did like JR except for the longer drive ...    I'm sure things will sink in more over the next few days and I'll have a more balanced opinion ...

Bryan