Born out of the necessity to find other people to "talk EastEnders" to, the first-ever EastEnders GabFest was held on a sunny Sunday afternoon on April 26, 1998. Postings were placed in Judy Hirsch's EastEnders newsletter; they resulted in e-mails from several interested parties. The first group consisted of Jennifer Allen, Bill Ammons, Anne Jones, Judy Purdee, and the Zillers, British ex-pats, and friends of Bill's. We met in downtown Asheville at Barley's Taproom at 1:30 p.m.

As it was the first meeting, we began by introducing ourselves. Each of us, in turn, revealed to one another the storylines taking place on EastEnders when we first began watching. (This has since become the traditional start to every GabFest.) It wasn't long before we were discussing favorite EastEnders characters and episodes, and browsing through back issues of the Walford Gazette!

The first-ever EastEnders GabFest lasted approximately two hours. As each guest left, they were presented with a small pot of posies, accented with a decorative EastEnders plant spike.

No photos were taken.