Each year Music and Games host a three day party for gamers in Virginia where they can casually play, compete and rock to their favorite video game tunes. As it has done for so many years; Music and Games returns for its 6th event for 2008. The location of M6 was held in Alexandria VA at the Hilton hotel. With a cast of community based organizations this year’s festival was filled with content to fill any gaming culture enthusiast.

At the opening ceremony, the Chairman of the festival Brendan Becker introduced the special guest for the event to the attendees. Names like Jake Kaufman aka “Virt”, X-Strike Stuidos, Robert Aldrich and more all came out to celebrate what is considered by many gamers to be the New Year event for gamers.

Music and Games 6 started Thursday at 3pm with the opening of the game room and ended on Sunday 4pm, bringing the event to a total of 3 and a half days of gaming activities. The festival hosted a variety of video game tournaments for the competitive appetites of gamers who seek to prove that they have what it takes to be a pro gamer.

The Chairman of Music and Games; Brendan Becker

The festival also showcased several bands that recomposed their favorite video game songs using live musical instruments; creating a concert for gaming fans to appreciate the art of what gaming bands such as Select Start, Chip Tunes and Jam Space do best.

The concert room held just as many gamers as the actual game room. The bands played vintage game music from some of the most recognizable game titles of all time like Megaman, Contra, Castilevania and more.

Here is a list of other notable Bands at Music and Games 6

* Advantage
* Armcannon
* Planet Skill (Wave Theory)
* Powerglove
* Smash Bros.
* Temp. Sound Solutions
* This Place is Haunted

Magfest however is more than just gaming and rock concerts; a lot of the cultural content that Magfest provides to its community is based off the many different gaming factions that attend the festival. The diverse content that each entity provides adds to the over all depth of what the festival has to offer.

To give an example of what goes on at Magfest other than the actual act of gaming and rock concerts check out how e-communication is taken to a whole new level. Since the launch of the Nintendo DS and DS lite Magfest has adopted a very unique gaming activity called Pictochatting. Gamers all around Magfest who have a DS all log into pictochat and socialize through their DS.

The Market Place

When gamers have had their fill of all the gaming competition that they could have possibly competed in, jammed out to every tune at the gaming concerts and held conversations via their Nintendo DS, there was still more that Magfest had to offer. The Market place at M6, which was strategically place in front of the main game room, had a lot of figurines and products for gamers to shop for. From classic videogames to rare comic books or just random DVD’s and gamer clothing it was all there for gamers to shop for.

One vendor worth noting were Glitch Gaming Apparel; yet another company helping to develop the market of gaming apparel. The demand for gamer gear has always been and now with the demand finally being realized through pro gaming it is only a matter of time before you see the expansion of the culture’s fashion. For more info visit: www.glitchgear.com