indie

Have you ever paid money to participate in a hackathon or other builder/creator event?

This first round of Indie Party is free but I'm trying to find sustainability due to the cost and time required to run it.

An entry fee would mean participants have maximum creative freedom.

Sponsorships could make it free but often mean you need to use the sponsor's tools (not ideal).

Have you ever paid money to participate in a hackathon or other builder/creator event?

This first round of Indie Party is free but I'm trying to find sustainability due to the cost and time required to run it.

An entry fee would mean participants have maximum creative freedom.

Sponsorships could make it free but often mean you need to use the sponsor's tools (not ideal).

https://party.indie.win

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Hacker house vs. hackathon is a good distinction, thank you. I've seen hacker houses in a physical location but not remote/virtual hacker houses. I'm not even sure how I would distinguish a virtual hackathon from a virtual hacker house tbh.

You may be better off doing a hacker house since there’s norms around paying for them, but not hackathons.

Otherwise you’re right that sponsorships are the norm.

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This is my experience with traditional hackathons as well. I think "hackathon" might not be the best analogy for this particular event as it's really not about finding talent nor product feedback for sponsors.

It's 100% meant to be a way for independents to advance their idea/concept/whatever, get feedback on it, connect with others socially, learn from others, and get some promo boost all while having some fun.

I’ve been to dozens of hackathons and never paid to be there (other than maybe for flight tickets). Some conferences will even sponsor a hackathon and let devs attend the entire conference for free.

If you curate your event to attract high quality participants, sponsors are willing to deal with any sort of tool to get valuable product feedback or find hireable talent.

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This is a great question that I've considered for a long time. My real world counterexample is endurance events in running, cycling, etc.

All of these events:
- Require lots of time to train (i.e. work)
- Require you to spend your own money on gear, travel, etc.
- Also have sponsors
- Have prizes for the winners but most people don't win
- Have an entry fee, sometimes a very expensive one

So my question is: Why are people willing to put in all this work and pay for those endurance events?

never been to a paid hackathons, as there are always sponsor interested in building with their tools

it’s a competition where i’m competing for prizes, why should i pay?

Programmer's time is worth a lot. If I have to pay to participate in a hackathon, why not just build on my own? 
Hackathons exists because 
1. Sponsors want developers to be motivated to build cool things with their tools.
2. Developers look for something to do on the side (hackathons don't pay a fraction of what the developers earns so it's usually not about the "money" but it's fun. And the money encourages competition)

Paying to get in defeats the purpose.