Bay Area Maker Faire Blasts Off Saturday

It’s crunch time at California’s San Mateo Event Center, where crews are busily assembling rocket ships, singing Tesla coils and animatronic giraffes and dragons in preparation for the 2010 Bay Area Maker Faire, taking place this weekend.

Returning for its fifth year, Maker Faire, if you’ve not had the pleasure, could be described as 50 percent science fair, 50 percent county fair and 50 percent Burning Man reunion. And if that doesn’t seem to add up, you’re right — it’s sensory overload, a hands-on, warranty-voiding explosion of futuristic technology, down-to-earth crafts and nine dollar pulled pork sandwiches.

If you’re planning on attending, hit up their web site for all the information on tickets and hours, recommendations for parking or — perhaps most importantly — public transit options. The event has been growing every year, even disrupting traffic on nearby U.S. Route 101, so you’ll want to set out early or research alternative options. We’ll be posting goings-on from the event as it unfolds, connectivity permitting.

22 thoughts on “Bay Area Maker Faire Blasts Off Saturday

  1. Ditto on the crowded… Like, imagine it being extremely crowded, and then triple that. They really need to spread this thing out over a couple of weekends or something… its insane how popular it has gotten!
    -Taylor

  2. Are you freaking serious!? Intrusive flash-based ads for dating sites, complete with audio? On hack-a-day? Until today, this was the very last site I would have expected to worry about this kind of crap coming from. Normally, I’m pretty prepared with the mute button but here I thought I was visiting a reputable, respectable site. Lesson learned.

    1. @wtf1975,
      Please let us know who/when this ad ran. We can ban them from the google rotation…. tomorrow…. when more sober. We don’t have direct control over what runs initially, but we can request certain ones be removed. I, for one, will not stand for anything with audio.

  3. You seem to be forgetting the 50% craft. Though if the trend holds, it will soon be more like 75% craft… And the burning component has been nowhere near as prevalent recently, since they started ending at sundown, rather than 10-11pm. Oh well. Check out the Kite Aerial Photography guy, avoid the Craft tent like the plague, and you should be alright.

    See you all there tomorrow!

  4. Very impressed that Caleb Kraft hopped on to assist someone who was bitching about an advertisement that helps HaD give us content for free just because the mute button is apparently too far away.

  5. @Webmoocher

    Right? I don’t do it to stiff sites from their advertising dues, but I’m not going to click stuff anyhow unless it’s for sparkfun or digi-key. Ad-block Plus ftw.

  6. Not interested. I can’t go to the website nor the youtube channel with that Becky chic in my face showing me how to sew or bedazzle something. I don’t think I could stand that in person. Make and Craft should have went their separate ways long ago.

  7. Just got back from it – definite change from years past. Keep an eye out for the obnoxious Ford people, and the general lack of ‘hacks’. Way too family friendly this year, and the crafts/burners are spreading. Oh well. Hopefully this’ll spur a split into what it used to be and the people trying to sell shit the whole time.

  8. What a huge blast. Saw so much cool stuff today i don’t even know where to begin. That much creativity in one place was just total overload. I could care less if it was a hack, mod, craft, whatever. It was all awesome. Hats off to everyone in the make-scene.

  9. First off, it was totally awesome, silicon valley’s nerd heaven, very good grouping of tech. DIY engineering folks, it was like college reunion with the engineering class.. oh an Yea, the craft stuff should be a totally different event, like Craft Faire. There was a booth where they had a rug and chairs and all sorts of grumpies knitting like grandma used to. I know people like to knit, but dang, just seemed so old fashion, not that there is anything wrong with that.. *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*, avoid these areas, at all cost.

  10. I waited all night on my birthday for this thing to take off and it never did… just an amazing fire works show. i can’t believe i thought it was really going to take off at burning man 09. well anything can happen there. one night i decided to not leave my camp and just look at the moon. sitting indianstyle up next to the street, i could see the moon getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger unttil POOWWW!!! It hit me in the face. literally. and thats when i realized it was just a big white balloon on a string gone rogue. the story goes on like that for a week so i’m just going to stop and say that the space ship was fucking awesome. . .

  11. what’s up with the awaiting moderation? i see dumb ass post all the time, just let it go and stop trying to moderate a hack forum. fuck censorship and let’s be smart

    1. @waffles1200,
      We recently turned it on in an attempt to improve the comments section. The trolling and off topic bickering were getting out of hand. As long as you are on topic and not being a complete jerk, you won’t be moderated.

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