It's definitely not a home brew competition. It looks like they just have a VIP type thing were attendees are asked to rate the commercial beers.
Most of the folks in The Whales that have gone to the AC fest in prior years agreed it was way oversold, overpriced and crappy for a fest.
This one, just like most beerfests is a pay one price, get a tasting glass type of event. The samples are "free" after that $45 you drop.
I'm not sure if you Jersian's are aware, there are quite a few accessible fests in our area. They do one in Camden on the Battleship NJ in June. There's also Belgium comes to Cooperstown (NY), Splitrock resort (November) in Lake Harmony, PA, The Central NJ beerfest in Woodbridge, NJ in September, and they just had one in Newark for the first time at the baseball stadium.