Thoughts on B-fest 09

only one thing that would have been nice was keeping the music going. It seems like it only came on a few time through out the day at random. If we had the music going all day that might have prevented a few people from sitting there blasting their systems.

Originally Posted by flossyfloss

Overall I did not like Bimmerfest this year.
.....After that I felt like I had seen everything, was hungry and not looking forward to standing in line for a crappy hot dog or hamburger.
Maybe some German food would have been cool. Bratwurst, Schnitzel, etc.

.....Maybe some demonstrations of how to perform common upgrades on more popular models.

I really liked Bimmerfest when it first started it was really cool and had alot to offer but it now seems to be more flash and no substance. Does anyone else feel the same?

Well, overall I enjoyed it, the polo field really added class to the event, kinda concours d elegance feel.

I like your point about the food,... German food and good beer would give it that additional German intangible to the event.

What about a second event during the year, maybe at the Phoenix Club or Alpine village, but during Octoberfest... A BMW Octoberfest event. Such an event would maybe draw the traditionalists who love the German engineering and the marque.

Whaddya think..... anyone...anyone...Bueller?

Originally Posted by ///M3 E93 in LA

Well, overall I enjoyed it, the polo field really added class to the event, kinda concours d elegance feel.

I like your point about the food,... German food and good beer would give it that additional German intangible to the event.

What about a second event during the year, maybe at the Phoenix Club or Alpine village, but during Octoberfest... A BMW Octoberfest event. Such an event would maybe draw the traditionalists who love the German engineering and the marque.

Whaddya think..... anyone...anyone...Bueller?

I love that idea!!! I'm down, but what about driving home after being wasted from Octoberfest beer???
Maybe make a deal with a local hotel(s) to get a good group rate?


BTW, I'm not just trying to crap all over all of the event planners hard work. I just want them to try and appeal to more than one type of crowd.

German food was served on the other side of the field...

Originally Posted by flossyfloss

I love that idea!!! I'm down, but what about driving home after being wasted from Octoberfest beer???
Maybe make a deal with a local hotel(s) to get a good group rate?


BTW, I'm not just trying to crap all over all of the event planners hard work. I just want them to try and appeal to more than one type of crowd.

Yeah, I suppose performance cars and excessive beer drinking might not be a good idea.

Originally Posted by flossyfloss

Maybe some German food would have been cool. Bratwurst, Schnitzel, etc.

Actually they did have brats over at the grandstand side, but it had the worst position tucked away in the corner.

I would have never seen it, if I didn't see people walking away with brats. I think the problem was that everyone thought they were selling sandwiches and fries there only and there was a line for the sandwiches and fries. While in the corner with the brats and potato salad, there was no waiting at all. This was about 11:30.

The single sandwich line made it confusing for people.

Also the lady at the dessert/cookie counter looked totally bored as I only saw 1-person buy from her table.

I was also pretty sad to see other dog's there when I was told we couldnt have them. My dog loves car shows!!!

Originally Posted by 6 Brit

I was also pretty sad to see other dog's there when I was told we couldnt have them. My dog loves car shows!!!

The Polo Club told us no dogs allowed, and asked us to inform our attendees.

I guess that the inevitable dog urine ruins the polo turf.

At that point, what was I supposed to do, throw people out?

First timer to bimmerfest, it was a great drive from Oregon and a great event. I am already looking forward to next year.

Originally Posted by Jon S.

The Polo Club told us no dogs allowed, and asked us to inform our attendees.

I guess that the inevitable dog urine ruins the polo turf.

At that point, what was I supposed to do, throw people out?

Not your fault!! It's just unfortunate that people cannot follow directions

Originally Posted by Jon S.

The Polo Club told us no dogs allowed, and asked us to inform our attendees.

I guess that the inevitable dog urine ruins the polo turf.

At that point, what was I supposed to do, throw people out?

As Shinobi observed in his post, some important information was buried on the FAQ page. Keith was all set to load up Greg's touring with 4 EZ-ups until I pointed him at that page. Those rules need to be displayed a lot more prominently than they were.

Originally Posted by Cliff

As Shinobi observed in his post, some important information was buried on the FAQ page. Keith was all set to load up Greg's touring with 4 EZ-ups until I pointed him at that page. Those rules need to be displayed a lot more prominently than they were.

Hmmm..... Sounds like a site overhaul is overdue.

Plans are already in the works...

Every year we ask everyone to pre-register so that we can enroll them in our attendee communication system.
The problem is that only about half actually do so, and the other half misses important announcements like
"no dogs" or "no e-z ups", stuff like that...

And to those that complain about the entrance fee and food prices:

Be wise about it. If $20 is too much, ride along with someone. If there is 4 people in your car, that's $5 per person that pays.

Don't wanna pay, then park your car outside and walk in. This is a Parking Fee, not an entrance fee.

Food: Bring a cooler with drinks and snacks and maybe some cold cuts and bread. You are not forced to buy the food there.

Prices are not going to change. So either do something about, or deal with it. Just going to Los Angeles Convention Center for the Auto show cost $10-20 just for the parking, and another $10 to get in. Food and Drink prices are beyond ridiculous.

Remember that these events are not cheap to run. Security, Police could run in the thousands. That doesn't include renting out the field, paying for any damages caused by idiotic people, etc.. $20 is a small price to pay for what you get.

End of my input.

Originally Posted by 6 Brit

Not your fault!! It's just unfortunate that people cannot follow directions

The people with the dogs are not probably not bimmerfest members. Probably some ride-alongs.

Jon what are your thoughts on organizing the next events by series? do you think its possible or too hard? We know bimmerfest's majority is e46 and e36's so reserving most of the space for them then the rest seperated..

As I said before, this year was one of the best ever.

I did want to go over a few things:

1) In regards to ez-ups, I to didnt know this and we brough one, if we are not allowed to bring them, where can we find shade? I know its to protect the grass, but maybe ones that dont need to be "stacked" but wieghted down might be better (if there is such a thing)

2) Revving engines and loud music. The legion yet again had the pleasure of being next to total tools revving their motors ALLLLL day. Last year (08) there was an red E30 with an M50 motor swap that was revving it all the time, he was trying to sell it too. This year we had a group of retards revving throught the day for minutes on end (to be honest, I was hoping one would have thrown a rod or something so I could die laughing at them). The black 6er and 2 M5's as I stated before. Then in the same group an E30 playing music loud and the owner wasnt even near the car, I had to find him and tell him to turn it off. What can we do to stop this? Even though it was announced over the speaker and was written, people didnt care. I say if they are reported, they get a warning and next time they be kicked off the grounds (this is why we have patrol on the grounds right?)

Jon, I will say again, one of the best b-fests to date, simply awesome and I couldnt have asked for more, and I know the legion feels the same way....just amazing

The venue was awesome
Those pigs are morons ... They got nothing else to do in Ventura County ... it was like a buffet for them ... I guess everybody hit their quota for the whole year(thanks to all bimmer owners) ... I hate pigs ...

Originally Posted by swtguysb

The venue was awesome
Those pigs are morons ... They got nothing else to do in Ventura County ... it was like a buffet for them ... I guess everybody hit their quota for the whole year(thanks to all bimmer owners) ... I hate pigs ...

It sucks getting a ticket, no doubt about it. But those guys risk their lives everyday when they go to work (to protect people like you and me). Calling them pigs and morons says a lot about you. Having them out there kind of keeping us all somewhat under control probably saved a few accidents...and maybe more.

Originally Posted by Bill-SD

It sucks getting a ticket, no doubt about it. But those guys risk their lives everyday when they go to work (to protect people like you and me). Calling them pigs and morons says a lot about you. Having them out there kind of keeping us all somewhat under control probably saved a few accidents...and maybe more.

+1. Show them some respect.

Originally Posted by LuvThatSam

And to those that complain about the entrance fee and food prices:

Be wise about it. If $20 is too much, ride along with someone. If there is 4 people in your car, that's $5 per person that pays.

Don't wanna pay, then park your car outside and walk in. This is a Parking Fee, not an entrance fee.

Food: Bring a cooler with drinks and snacks and maybe some cold cuts and bread. You are not forced to buy the food there.

Prices are not going to change. So either do something about, or deal with it. Just going to Los Angeles Convention Center for the Auto show cost $10-20 just for the parking, and another $10 to get in. Food and Drink prices are beyond ridiculous.

Remember that these events are not cheap to run. Security, Police could run in the thousands. That doesn't include renting out the field, paying for any damages caused by idiotic people, etc.. $20 is a small price to pay for what you get.

End of my input.

the problem i had with the entrance fee is that i was told, either pay it or get lost until after 9am. this was after sitting in line for 20 minutes to get to the front. had i known it was 40 bucks period(i've never been to bimmerfest before) i would've waited until later to come. i came so early because i didn't want to miss anything and didn't know what to expect.

i had no problem with the prices of stuff once at the show. people will charge what they can get. it's basic economics. i would have spent a lot more money than i did had vendors either taken credit cards or there was an ATM somewhere around there. as it was, i spent money at one vendor, la zaino, and that was because they took credit cards.

my 0.02...

Originally Posted by 6 Brit

I was also pretty sad to see other dog's there when I was told we couldnt have them. My dog loves car shows!!!

yea me too i was gonna bring my princess but heard you couldnt bring dogs

I thought it was quite boring after about 1 or 2 hours myself as all you could do was walk around and look at the cars. Nothing else to do. Would have been nice to have other "events" inside the event to break up the monotony. There was hardly any vendor product there to look at, really not that much info to learn like you said. Felt more like a huge car meet in a parking lot where everyone just hangs out and looks at each others cars.

Originally Posted by flossyfloss

Overall I did not like Bimmerfest this year.
Loved the venue, great organization getting into the venue, nobody really was acting a fool doing burnouts, serving beer, that was about all I liked.
Here are the things I really did not like:
$40/$20 fee to get in - not so bad if it was just $20
Not enough BMW vendors - for the amount of people attending there should have been waaay more vendors there (this probably would have helped pay for the venue as well)
Not enough food vendors for the amount of people

The rest of what I did not like much was just personal preference. I would have liked to see maybe some more BMW stuff? What I mean is actually having someone from BMW give new model information and direction. The new Z4 was cool but it was just there and nobody spoke about it (maybe they did but nobody was making it a point that this was/or did happen). Maybe some BMW presentations on past, present and future cars. Maybe not even a person from BMW but someone that knows the history and can speak to a certain model give a presentation.
My biggest complaint was that there was nothing to do but walk around and look. That was cool for about 1-2 hours tops. After that I felt like I had seen everything, was hungry and not looking forward to standing in line for a crappy hot dog or hamburger.
Maybe some German food would have been cool. Bratwurst, Schnitzel, etc.

I have been going off-and-on to Bimmerfest for the past 10 years and it seems to have deteriorated over the years and lost it's heritage in place of boy-racer type feel. I understand that we should not ignore those people that are "tuner crowd" since they spend money on aftermarket products but let's get some culture back.
Also, if you are going to cater to that crowd get some real tuners to come and get more of them! You can put them away from each other if that is what they want but we need more of these tuners coming.

Maybe some demonstrations of how to perform common upgrades on more popular models.

I really liked Bimmerfest when it first started it was really cool and had alot to offer but it now seems to be more flash and no substance.

The trick (as with modifying your own BMW) is to have some flash with alot of substance! Not the other way around.



Does anyone else feel the same?

Originally Posted by g2artist

I thought it was quite boring after about 1 or 2 hours myself as all you could do was walk around and look at the cars. Nothing else to do. Would have been nice to have other "events" inside the event to break up the monotony. There was hardly any vendor product there to look at, really not that much info to learn like you said. Felt more like a huge car meet in a parking lot where everyone just hangs out and looks at each others cars.

That's what bimmefest started out to be.
And I like that feel. I'm pretty sure that's what bimmerfest is suppose to be anyhow
One giant BMW meet. Not a car show with tons of events going on.
I don't want it to turn into a hot import nights show of retardedness.

Originally Posted by MalibuMafiaV

That's what bimmefest started out to be.
And I like that feel. I'm pretty sure that's what bimmerfest is suppose to be anyhow
One giant BMW meet. Not a car show with tons of events going on.
I don't want it to turn into a hot import nights show of retardedness.

Amen, Brotha'