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Cook's Registration at the GA Mt. Eggfest
Comments
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@egret - can you explain where the money for this goes? I see that it's free to cook but that y'all are charging folks $25 (plus a handling fee) to taste?
I think for some folks who might be interested in volunteering their cooking/time/food for this, it would be good to understand how the overall budget works.
Thanks!"I've made a note never to piss you two off." - Stike -
I will be up at midnight registering because this is one awesome fest and KayNOcook and I love cooking at this one. This will be our 7th year!
I'm only hungry when I'm awake!
Okeechobee FL. Winter
West Jefferson NC Summer
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JohnInCarolina said:@egret - can you explain where the money for this goes? I see that it's free to cook but that y'all are charging folks $25 (plus a handling fee) to taste?
I think for some folks who might be interested in volunteering their cooking/time/food for this, it would be good to understand how the overall budget works.
Thanks!
Best fest around, will be there cooking with north ga. Eggers for the 7th yearI do not know the budget, but I do know, he rents the site where the fest is held, he rents the site where the meet n greet is held on Thursday and Friday night, he hires security at the site all night Friday night until sat. Am, he hires personnel to empty trash thru out the day sat. He has advertisement cost, he has liability insurance cost, etc. it is not cheap to put on a fest of this magnitude.
$25.00 to come to a fest, eat for 6-7 hrs., learn new dishes and techniques, meet new friends and enjoy the atmosphere is well worth the price. as all cooks know, we incur our lodging cost, travel cost, food cost out of our pocket. Why, because it is fun cooking and giving away food to strangers. I have met many folks at fest who have become great friends.
Large egg and mini max egg plus a Blackstone griddle
South Ga. cooking fool !!!!!!!!
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outrageous said:JohnInCarolina said:@egret - can you explain where the money for this goes? I see that it's free to cook but that y'all are charging folks $25 (plus a handling fee) to taste?
I think for some folks who might be interested in volunteering their cooking/time/food for this, it would be good to understand how the overall budget works.
Thanks!
Best fest around, will be there cooking with north ga. Eggers for the 7th yearI do not know the budget, but I do know, he rents the site where the fest is held, he rents the site where the meet n greet is held on Thursday and Friday night, he hires security at the site all night Friday night until sat. Am, he hires personnel to empty trash thru out the day sat. He has advertisement cost, he has liability insurance cost, etc. it is not cheap to put on a fest of this magnitude.
$25.00 to come to a fest, eat for 6-7 hrs., learn new dishes and techniques, meet new friends and enjoy the atmosphere is well worth the price. as all cooks know, we incur our lodging cost, travel cost, food cost out of our pocket. Why, because it is fun cooking and giving away food to strangers. I have met many folks at fest who have become great friends.
As for it being the best fest around... I'm sure it's a lot of fun and I would love to make it myself. I've been to a few and hosted an event (much smaller of course) myself with @tarheelmatt and @piney. I guess I have more sympathy for the events that are smaller and also free and open to the public, like Salado.
"I've made a note never to piss you two off." - Stike -
I saw that 2000 tickets are available. That's $50,000 in revenue. I think @JohnInCarolina asks a valid question considering the expense that the cooks incur to make this possible.
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JohnInCarolina said:outrageous said:JohnInCarolina said:@egret - can you explain where the money for this goes? I see that it's free to cook but that y'all are charging folks $25 (plus a handling fee) to taste?
I think for some folks who might be interested in volunteering their cooking/time/food for this, it would be good to understand how the overall budget works.
Thanks!
Best fest around, will be there cooking with north ga. Eggers for the 7th yearI do not know the budget, but I do know, he rents the site where the fest is held, he rents the site where the meet n greet is held on Thursday and Friday night, he hires security at the site all night Friday night until sat. Am, he hires personnel to empty trash thru out the day sat. He has advertisement cost, he has liability insurance cost, etc. it is not cheap to put on a fest of this magnitude.
$25.00 to come to a fest, eat for 6-7 hrs., learn new dishes and techniques, meet new friends and enjoy the atmosphere is well worth the price. as all cooks know, we incur our lodging cost, travel cost, food cost out of our pocket. Why, because it is fun cooking and giving away food to strangers. I have met many folks at fest who have become great friends.
As for it being the best fest around... I'm sure it's a lot of fun and I would love to make it myself. I've been to a few and hosted an event (much smaller of course) myself with @tarheelmatt and @piney. I guess I have more sympathy for the events that are smaller and also free and open to the public, like Salado.
Large egg and mini max egg plus a Blackstone griddle
South Ga. cooking fool !!!!!!!!
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I will not be cooking this year but I hope they hook the cooks up a little better this year.
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Lit said:I will not be cooking this year but I hope they hook the cooks up a little better this year."I've made a note never to piss you two off." - Stike
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BGE charges 45 a head for 3000 plus in addition to charging cooks yet no one asks where the $$$ goes?In the middle of Georgia! Geaux Tigers!!!!!
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bo31210 said:BGE charges 45 a head for 3000 plus in addition to charging cooks yet no one asks where the $$$ goes?
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bo31210 said:BGE charges 45 a head for 3000 plus in addition to charging cooks yet no one asks where the $$$ goes?
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It's the Fests that charge the cooks to participate in that bothers me.
Of the Eggfests here in Texas, that charge for tasters, they have a charity associated with them. The money raised goes to the charity. And I'm OK with that.
Large BGE, MiniMAX BGE, 2 Mini BGE's, R&V Fryer, 36" Blackstone Griddle, Camp Chef Dual Burner 40K BTU StoveBGE ChimineaProsper, TX -
So by "advertising" here, he owes a break down of costs to those who ask?In the middle of Georgia! Geaux Tigers!!!!!
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bo31210 said:
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bo31210 said:
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bo31210 said:So by "advertising" here, he owes a break down of costs to those who ask?
On the flip-side, if someone is cooking at this fest and wants to know who their free labor(which isn't really free considering how much some people invest) is going towards, then I also see no problem with a cook asking where $50k is going. Maybe the fest costs 50k. Maybe it costs 10k and the remainder is his boat payments for the year. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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I could answer a lot of your questions but it is not my place to answer them, I have called John Hall and left him a voicemail letting him know what JohninCarolina has asked and I feel confident when John Hall can he will answer the questions. Last year they gave away 5 Mini Max Eggs to the cooks.
Kay and I Love to cook at some Eggfest this is one will hope to always attend. We did not like the Eggtober Fest when they moved to Stone Mountain and won't be going back as it's just to big and out in a huge parking lot.
I don't like to go and not cook as it's entertainment for us, I look at the cost of everything as just a cost of doing what we like to do and if I feel it's not worth the cost we pass and find another Eggfest to attend.
So you all just relax and wait for John Hall to comment.
I'm only hungry when I'm awake!
Okeechobee FL. Winter
West Jefferson NC Summer
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Since I started all of this let me just say that I have no reason to believe that the organizers are doing anything "wrong" in charging tasters. I know how much work went into a much smaller version of one of these, and I can't imagine what's required to make everything work for 2000 people. I haven't been to this Eggfest and would like to go and maybe even cook.
For all I know they donate any proceeds to charity. I just thought to ask since there isn't any information on the website about it."I've made a note never to piss you two off." - Stike -
Well, before people start thinking we’re trying to stiff anyone by putting on this eggfest, let me explain a couple of things.
First, this fest is a fundraiser for the GA Mt. Fair which, in recent years, has teetered on the brink of closing. This Fair is a huge draw and economic boost for our community, which is also suffering due to the economy the past several years......So, without this Fair functioning, most of the businesses in our county would likely fold. There’re a lot of activities and events going on at the Fair during the year besides this eggfest.
Second, in regard to the taster’s fee, I wanted to discontinue the cook’s fee and I felt this would be a good way to offset that loss for the Fair, so I raised the fee from $20.00 to $25.00, which I feel is not out of line with any of the other major fests.........the Sunshine State fest charged tasters $35.00 and the Eggtoberfest was $45.00, to name a couple. Neither of these donated the proceeds to a charity and I didn’t hear anyone questioning where the proceeds went.
I’ve cooked at over 30 eggfests the past 10 years or so, in San Francisco, Maryland, Florida, Georgia, Omaha, Oklahoma City and Denver and it always irked me a little to have to pay to cook, but, it wasn’t a game changer and I figured the organizers had a good reason for doing this other than “greed”.
An eggfest of this size is a huge undertaking, not to mention costly, and it gets more costly every year.
Third (I know I said a “couple” of things), in regard to the cook’s goody bags this year, I’ll be the first to admit we made a very bad call on the contents therein. It’s becoming nearly impossible to get sponsors to continue to donate year after year items for these cook’s bags. When you tell them you need 125-150 bottles of bbq sauce or rubs, that’s a big hurdle for them and after a couple of years they stop answering your correspondence altogether. If any of you think you can get sponsors to donate this many items every year I’d be happy to hear from you.
Those t-shirts that were included this year from other events proved to be a big mistake and I apologize profusely for this..........we didn’t have much to put in the bags.......‘nuff said!
If any of you received one of these shirts and had no use for it, please come and see me next year at the fest and I’ll give you a 2017 GA Mt. Eggfest t-shirt with my compliments.
For your information, we don’t charge the vendors anything for being here. We give them a covered booth free of charge and we ask them to donate something for the cook’s drawing in exchange. It adds a lot to the experience of all the attendees to have a variety of vendors here so they can see and feel and sample a lot of theme-related items so, consequently, we encourage them to come. This is also a good platform for vendors to introduce new products. Smokeware (formerly Eggware) had their coming out with their stainless caps here in 2013 and you see what that turned in to..!
Also, in case you’re wondering, I receive no compensation for organizing this eggfest. I do it for the community in which I’m part of and I do it for all you eggheads! I was teetering on retirement after this year, but, when I see the fun everyone is having and the numerous compliments from so many, I guess I’m not ready to walk away quite yet.
We’re always looking to find new and different things to present you and they don’t always turn out quite like we’d envisioned.......
But, most times they do turn out........this year was proof of that with the presence of star chef Linkie Marais and giving out 5 new MiniMax eggs in the cook’s drawing. How many eggfests do that?
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Well said John and THANKS for all you do to make this happen every year. Jim & Kay
I'm only hungry when I'm awake!
Okeechobee FL. Winter
West Jefferson NC Summer
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Thanks for the info @egret! Glad to know the funds go to a good cause!"I've made a note never to piss you two off." - Stike
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John, great information. We will be there again this year. This fest is the best and we appreciate the hard work of everyone involved. happy new year..
Large egg and mini max egg plus a Blackstone griddle
South Ga. cooking fool !!!!!!!!
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Nice to hear the cooks won't have to pay to cook. They shell out enough money and hard work as it is. Great fest and venue.Snellville, GA
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I will say John does put on one hell of an Eggfest! We have been there twice. Once cooked with Austin Egger and once our team. All of the locals, the people who attend and John's support staff were always nice and very welcoming to us out of towners.
We would like go again but is the same time as the Space City Eggfest in Spring TX.
Large BGE, MiniMAX BGE, 2 Mini BGE's, R&V Fryer, 36" Blackstone Griddle, Camp Chef Dual Burner 40K BTU StoveBGE ChimineaProsper, TX -
Egret, I read your post and I/we know how hard it is to plan everything, try to find a venue, try to get sponsors on board, and to try to make everyone happy just to name a few. @JohnInCarolina, @tarheelmatt, worked their a$$ off last year at Butt Blast and the turnout we had was proof of that. I understand the questioning of the prices but it is nice to know that whenever we go and spend several hundred bucks that it does go to a worthy cause and not to line someones pockets. We will be there...about 6 of us together. Thanks for all your hard work and time. I hope you can make Butt Blast in April. Thanks GaryLenoir, N.C.
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piney said:Egret, I read your post and I/we know how hard it is to plan everything, try to find a venue, try to get sponsors on board, and to try to make everyone happy just to name a few. @JohnInCarolina, @tarheelmatt, worked their a$$ off last year at Butt Blast and the turnout we had was proof of that. I understand the questioning of the prices but it is nice to know that whenever we go and spend several hundred bucks that it does go to a worthy cause and not to line someones pockets. We will be there...about 6 of us together. Thanks for all your hard work and time. I hope you can make Butt Blast in April. Thanks Gary
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