Maker Faire Plzeň is back this weekend, June 12th & 13th, for its second year to celebrate the technological heritage of the city and surrounding region and to kick off a summer (and autumn) of making in the Czech Republic. Plzeň (often known as Pilsen around the world) has a storied industrial history and was a center for regional trade throughout its history, which is evident across the cityscape and gives deep roots to its thriving maker culture. The event itself will inhabit a slice of the city’s history of industry in a facility formerly used to repair buses which was transformed into a creative center called DEPO2015.
The city also lays claim to a history of invention as the birthplace of the automatic electric arc lamp or “Plzeň Lamp” commonly used for street lighting, which won the gold medal from among 50 similar devices at the International Exposition of Electricity in Paris in 1880. And, of course, Pilsner beer, which was first crafted in one of the city’s many underground breweries at the relatively modern date of 1842, given that one local brewery at the Dobrow Monastery has been producing since 1375. To celebrate this history, Maker Faire Plzeň producers Make More, who have planned five other regional Maker Faires around the country this year, chose the arc lamp to distinguish Plzeň on their logo for the event.
This year, due to municipal restrictions for Covid-19, only 35 makers can participate in the in-person event. However, the whole event will be enriched by large-scale installations – Mansterville and Nerdy Derby – created by PrusaLab, a primary sponsor of Maker Faire events across the Czech Republic. Mansterville is a human-powered propane hamster wheel and this version of Nerdy Derby includes IOT elements and records the time of the race automatically. More than 1000 young makers have already participated in the building and race at Maker Faires in Prague, Brno, and Mladá Boleslav over the last several years and the producers are thrilled to bring the interactions to Maker Faire Plzeň. We will be holding a soldering workshop, which will include the elements from Jiří Praus and his now-famous Floower and Václav Mach aka xx0x. They will also organize the popular rocket workshop.
Here’s a look at a few other standout exhibits. Read more about them and all the rest, HERE.
To get a taste of what’s in store, check out the video from their inaugural event in 2019, which showed the work 40+ makers and invited 2500+ visitors through the doors.
Maker Faire Plzeň is the first in a busy year of events for the Make More team, who were a part of the Maker Faire Prague production team in its first year before breaking off to produce local events in different regions across the Czech Republic. This year, they’ve expanded and have set their sights on six local events produced with collaborators in each community: České Budějovice (9/11-12), Mladá Boleslav (9/25-26), Olomouc (10/2-3), Brno (10/23-24), Ústí nad Labem (TBD). Click their image to learn more about why they wanted to spread Maker Faire around the Czech Republic.
Find out more about Maker Faire Plzeň: WEBSITE I FACEBOOK I INSTAGRAM
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