The SoCal Eggfest that I attended did not allow you to cook on the Egg until the morning of around 7 a.m. and you're supposed to have food ready by 11/noonish. So, most foods cannot be pre-cooked in advance. (Also, because there are usually awards or prizes given out to the best dish, check the rules - they may specifically say you cannot cook anything in advance.) So, the max actual cooking time that you'll probably have will be somewhere around 4 to 5 hours. (According to the website, the Eggs will be lit around 9 a.m.?)
Here are a few things that I noticed that are good, although some may be extremely labor intensive:
1. ABTs (extremely labor intensive);
2. Wings;
3. Chicken;
4. Quicker cooking roasts (pork loin, pork tenderloin, beef tri-tip, beef or pork sirloin, lamb) that you can cut into thin slices and not have to baby while cooking;
5. Veg (roasted eggplant, potatoes, squash, etc.) . . .
Honestly, I wasn't too impressed with the food served at the SoCal Eggfest. Several dishes were too salty and overcooked. I figure that since NC and most of the Eastern/Southern US has a longer history of BGE users, that the food is better.
Since most of the people there will be cooking meat, I would consider making a good side - I would think that some roasted baby potatoes and a seasoned sour cream/horseradish cream (and a roast if you want to cook some meat) would be quite awesome. Also, since you're paying for all of the ingredients, and there could be hundreds of people there (according to the website, it's also ALL YOU CAN EAT :bigeek
, don't go crazy with expensive ingredients.
Good luck! And take pictures! :doublethumbsup: