Ok gang, we have an official press release for Maker Faire – we’re projecting 40k attendees this year!
“You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet…”-Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Sebastopol–The 2nd Annual Bay Area Maker Faire (May 19 & 20) at the San Mateo Fairgrounds in northern California is just 10 days away, and this year’s event is shaping up to be even better than last year’s award-winning DIY fiesta! This year’s event will have twice as many Makers (400), twice as many fans (40,000 anticipated), and twice the terrain (200,000 square feet).
Just a few of this year’s incredible highlights:
The Kitchen of the Future–Unlike the retro-futuristic unkept promise of the 50’s, this kitchen is musical–a collection of circuit-bent, MIDI-ready appliances such as a toaster and blender. This debuted in Toronto last year, and for the finale the blender triggered sound samples from the song “Tequila” while blending frozen margaritas…
Project Pimento–There’s only one theremin lounge band and we’ve got them at Maker Faire. Project: Pimento will launch with a half-hour set and then play several short sets throughout the afternoon. Other great bands will play throughout the day outdoors on the main stage.
Moonshine Powered Motors–David Blume shows how to produce your own alcohol auto fuel from ground corn and enzymes, and how to convert your car to run on it. Blume is the author of “Alcohol Can Be a Gas.”
The Woz–Steve Wozniak, inventor of the Apple computer will be interviewed Saturday on our main stage.
Swap-O-Rama-Rama Fashion Show–Participants can donate a bag of old clothes–and then work with a team of celebrated designers to make new clothes! This year’s Swap will take place on May 19th (11am to 5pm) and May 20th (11am to 4pm) with a recycled fashion show happening at 5pm on Saturday May 19th.
Other incredible highlights include:
The “King of Fling” catapult competition, The Puppy Mover Monorail, Survival Research Labs (SRL), Five Foot Russian Submarine, Junkyard Jet, Bazaar Bizarre, Silicon Death Valley, RoboGames’ Combat Robots, Power Tool Drag Races, Life-size Mousetrap, Walking Robotic Chariot, Build Your Own Blinkybug, The Electric Giraffe, The Disgusting Spectacle, Tomato-basket Dragons and Whales, Internet Crane Game, The Art of Motion Control, Model Rocket Video Camera, Chris Benton’s Kite Aerial Photography, Electric Supercars, Roobma Hacking, Winners of the Most Spectacular Failures contest, and acres more.
Established by the tech-loving creators of the gloriously irreverent Make and Craft magazines, Maker Faire is a family-friendly, hands-on event where hundreds of backyard inventors gather to share their fun projects, creative ideas and eye-popping creations. This resurgence of grassroots invention has been celebrated everywhere from Rolling Stone to The Wall Street Journal, but nowhere is it more visible than at Maker Faire.
“They’re enthusiasts and hobbyists,” said Dale Dougherty, Editor and Publisher of Make magazine, explaining the magazine’s following. “People are doing something they love, and they love talking about it.It’s one thing to do a project. But the real satisfaction is to share it with other people. That’s what Maker Faire is all about.”
Sponsors:
Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, Adobe, Carlo Rossi, Chronicle Books, Lion Brand Yarn Company, ShopBot, Sun Microsystems, Inc., TechShop, Texterity.
Media Sponsors:
Boing Boing, Cool Hunting, EE Times, IEEE Spectrum, Laughing Squid, O’Reilly Media, ReadyMade, Robot Magazine, San Jose Tech Museum, Swap Thing, TODO, Toolmonger, Twitter
Exhibitors:
Epilog Laser, Future Technology Device International, Ltd.
Hardtent RV Rental, HSC Electronic Supply, iFixit, Instructables, iRobot, Joby, LEGO, Lulu.com, OpenMoko, PictureItPostage.com, ProtoPulsion Inc., RadioShack, Revell Incorporated, Simplified Building Concepts, Solarbotics Ltd., Sony Electronics, Surplus Center, Wired/ GeekDad.
For more information, art, or interviews with Makers or Crafters, contact:
Sara Peyton, (707) 827-7118, peyton@oreilly.com
Mark Ballard, (212) 255-8455 ext. 225, mark@rosengrouppr.com
Maker Faire – Link.
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