Maker Faire is a convention of

do it yourself "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and semi ...

aka-DIY enthusiasts started by ''

Make Make or MAKE may refer to: * Make (magazine), a tech DIY periodical *Make (software), a software build tool *Make, Botswana, in the Kalahari Desert *Make Architects Make Architects is an international architecture practice headquartered in Londo ...

'' magazine in 2006. Participants come from a wide variety of interests, such as robotics, 3D printing, computers,

arts and crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

, and

hacker culture The hacker culture is a subculture of individuals who enjoy—often in collective effort—the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming the limitations of software systems or electronic hardware (mostly digital electronics), to a ...

History

In 2005, Dale Dougherty founded Make: magazine as a quarterly publication with Tim O’Reilly. The first Make: magazine was published in 2005 and the first Maker Faire took place in 2006 in San Mateo, Over the next 13 years, this inaugural maker faire expanded to more than 200 licensed Maker Faires in more than 40 countries. Dale Dougherty convened the first Maker Faire in 2006 in San Mateo, Calif., drawing a crowd of 20,000. Maker Media Inc. went out of business in June 2019, and Dale Doherty rebranded as Make Community.

Maker Faires in the US

Flagship Maker Faires

Flagship Maker Faires are held in

San Mateo, California San Mateo ( ; ) is a city in San Mateo County, California, on the San Francisco Peninsula. About 20 miles (32 km) south of San Francisco, the city borders Burlingame to the north, Hillsborough to the west, San Francisco Bay and Foster C ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The last Bay Area Maker Faire was held in 2019. The decision to end the Faire was mostly financial. Attendance had dropped more than 30% in recent years from 145,000 makers in 2015 to 100,000 in 2018. The Maker Faire Bay Area was not held in 2020. This was due to the potential impact of coronavirus as well as the 2019 transition of Maker Media to Make: Community. The New York Maker Faire is also known as the "World Maker Faire". Maker Faire has most recently happened in New York in 2018. However, the New York City Faire was cancelled in 2019 due to financial difficulties.

White House Maker Faire

On June 18, 2014,

President Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

hosted the first-ever (and only thus far) White House Maker Faire.

Past US events

2008

Maker Faire 2008 was held on 3–4 May 2008, at the San Mateo County Event Center. Highlights of the Faire included a human-sized

Mouse Trap A mousetrap is a specialized type of animal trap designed primarily to catch and, usually, kill mice. Mousetraps are usually set in an indoor location where there is a suspected infestation of rodents. Larger traps are designed to catch other s ...

board game, kinetic squid sculpture, 55' wingspan kinetic steel butterfly, bicycle-powered music stage, a solar-powered chariot pulled by an

Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...

robot, and over 500 other booths from different makers. There were approximately 65,000 people in attendance. Featured guests included

Adam Savage Adam Whitney Savage (born July 15, 1967) is an American special effects designer and fabricator, actor, educator, and television personality and producer, best known as the former co-host (with Jamie Hyneman) of the Discovery Channel televisi ...

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Stephanie Anne Pearl-McPhee (a.k.a. The Yarn Harlot; born June 14, 1968) is a writer, knitter, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), and doula living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Life Pearl-McPhee's grandmother, a professi ...

Lee David Zlotoff Lee David Zlotoff (born July 10, 1954) is a producer, director and screenwriter best known as the creator of the TV series ''MacGyver''. He started as a screenwriter for ''Hill Street Blues'' in 1981. He then became a producer of ''Remington Stee ...

Tony Baxter Tony Wayne Baxter (born February 1, 1947) is the former senior vice president of creative development in Walt Disney Imagineering and was responsible for creating designs and carrying out the construction of attractions all over the world. He anno ...

and

Eepybird EepyBird is an entertainment company best known for creating the viral video "The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments" which won the first ever Webby Awards, Webby Award for Viral Video in 2007Tew, Chris"EepyBird Makes History With Webby Viral V ...

. An additional 2008 Maker Faire was held on October 18–19, 2008, in Austin, Texas.

2020

Maker Faire XV was held online.

Worldwide Maker Faires

Maker Faires are also held in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa.
Afrigadget
a website dedicated to African Ingenuity, was created by

Erik Hersman Erik Hersman (born 1975) is a technologist, blogger and commentator who specialises in the impact and application of technology throughout Africa. Raised in Sudan and Kenya, he is a graduate of Kenya's Rift Valley Academy and Florida State Unive ...

in 2006 just a few months after Make Magazine and the first

Maker Faire Africa Presently curated and organized by Emeka Okafor, Henry Barnor and Jennifer Wolfe, Maker Faire Africa is an international organization co-founded by Mark Grimes (Felonious Nun) Emeka Okafor (TED Africa), Lars Hasselblad Torres (IDEAS Global Challen ...

took place in Ghana in 2009. The first Maker Faire in the United Kingdom took place on March 14–15, 2009, in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

, as a joint venture with the

Newcastle ScienceFest Newcastle ScienceFest is a 10-day event at venues across NewcastleGateshead, with the principal aim of increasing the North East's enthusiasm for science and encouraging young people to consider a career in this area. Early history The first Scie ...

. In the US, the 2009 Maker Faire Rhode Island was scheduled for September 6–19. The first Maker Faire North Carolina was held on April 25, 2010 in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

. It moved to

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...

for 2011. In 2010, Canada had their first Mini Maker Faire in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, Ontario on November 6–7. Maker Faire has spread worldwide, and the first Maker Faire in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

was held in 2014. The next year it grew significantly and was organized by

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is a public research university located in Hung Hom, Hong Kong near Hung Hom station. The University is one of the eight government-funded degree-granting tertiary institutions in Hong Kong. Founded ...

, led by Dr. Clifford Choy from the university's School of Design in November 2015 as well as in April 2017. In 2015, the US Embassy in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

and

Fab Lab A fab lab (''fabrication laboratory'') is a small-scale workshop offering (personal) digital fabrication. A fab lab is typically equipped with an array of flexible computer-controlled tools that cover several different length scales and vari ...

Egypt started organizing Maker Faire Cairo that received thousands of visitors.

Mini Maker Faires

Make Magazine assists independent event organizers in producing small-scale Maker Faire events in local communities. In 2011, Mini Maker Faires were held in Canada (

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

), the United Kingdom (

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

) and a number of cities in the USA:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

;

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

;

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

;

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

;

Fishers, Indiana Fishers is a city in Fall Creek and Delaware townships, Hamilton County, Indiana, United States. As of the 2010 census the population was 76,794, and by 2019 the estimated population was 95,310. A suburb of Indianapolis, Fishers has grown rapidl ...

;

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

;

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

;

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

;

Poulsbo, Washington Poulsbo ( ) is a city on Liberty Bay in Kitsap County, Washington, United States. It is the smallest of the four cities in Kitsap County. The population was 9,200 at the 2010 census and an estimated 10,927 in 2018. The area was historically i ...

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...

;

Linthicum, Maryland Linthicum is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated community in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. The population was 10,324 at the 2010 census. It is located directly north of Baltimore–Washington International Thurgood ...

;

Westport, Connecticut Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, along the Long Island Sound within Connecticut's Gold Coast. It is northeast of New York City. The town had a population of 27,141 according to the 2020 U.S. Census. History ...

; Louisville, Kentucky; and

Urbana, Illinois Urbana ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, Urbana had a population of 38,336. As of the 2010 United States Census, Urbana is the List of municipalities in Illinois, 38th-most pop ...

School Maker Faires

Schools are also able to host School Maker Faires.

References

External links

*{{official website, makerfaire.com Festivals in the San Francisco Bay Area Festivals in Austin, Texas Tourist attractions in San Mateo County, California Recurring events established in 2006 2006 establishments in California Robotics events DIY culture