Book Festivals: Ever partaken in the feast of authors and book?

I'm thinking about attending the Brooklyn Book Festival this year. It would be a first for me. I especially like that all of the events are free.

Have you ever attended a large scale book festival or even a small scale book festival? Have you met any of your favorite authors?
http://www.brooklynbookfestival.org/BrooklynBookFestival/festival.html

This bunch of authors are mostly unknown to me or at least their works have remained unread by me so that's reason not to attend this year.
http://www.brooklynbookfestival.org/BrooklynBookFestival/authors.html

But John Hodgman and Sloane Crosley will be there this year and it might be interesting to hear them speak and then get an autograph if that's possible.




I'm kind of disappointed in the lack of recognizable science fiction writers in the bunch but I guess since it's a free event I could perhaps go and discover one their midst... perhaps.