Demoparties rule. Plain and simple. Won't make it to Sunrise myself, but I'll be at Evoke (and likely without a prod). My suggestion would actually be to hit up irc (#breakpoint and #revision on ircnet are great, even if you don't care about those parties!) and get to know some people. Actually (duh), #ukscene on ircnet is the place to go if you're considering going to Sunrise.
But yeah, most people don't bring a prod and most don't care if you have one. It's about coming together and drinking with your nerdy scener buddies; the compos are awesome of course but it's really about coming together for something.
At least I think so. Only been to a few (NVision + The Gathering are a bit like conferences; @party, EasterGarden and Solskogen were much more "intimate" and I enjoyed them more, even though they were smaller), but they're seriously awesome. Even if you never attend Sunrise, you really should go to a party sometime.
Just my two cents
