I've been to the desert.
Spent a couple weeks in the Tuscon area, and before that went to boot camp near San Antonio.
You can keep it.
As for meeting people from Flametown: been there done that too and I had way more connectivity with those fine folk than any of the current crop.
Don't get me wrong... I hope this year's attendees have all the fun they can stand and document at least *some* of it to share with us here. It's just a hard pass from me.