Continental Europe’s First Maker Faire

21 Comments

Continental Europe’s first official sanctioned Maker Faire is well underway in the Netherlands, tucked away at the Open Lab Ebbinge in the city of Groningen.

Of course the Groningen Maker Faire will feature cool builds like the bike-mounted workshop built by [Bertoa] we’ve seen and a few wind-powered beach animals inspired by the work of [Theo Jansen]. Also on the schedule are a 3D printed zoetrope, delta robot pick and place, radio controlled submarines, and of course a fleet of electric go karts.

A few of the talks involve a mashup of Google Earth and 3D modeling from [Ronald van Aalst] [Dick Stadaand], and a very interesting talk on disability insurance for self-employed entrepreneurs from [Biba Shoemaker] and [Andre Jonkers].

[buZz] from the NURDspace hackerspace in Wageningen wrote in to tell us he’ll be participating in the Groningen Maker Faire’s Scrapheap Challenge, an awesome contest that pits teams against each other to build something in a setup very similar to the fondly remembered Junkyard Wars.

Of course, Hackaday’s writers and editors are about 3,000 miles away from continental Europe’s first Maker Faire, so we can’t provide any live updates. If you have any pictures or video, send them in and we’ll put them up.

21 thoughts on “Continental Europe’s First Maker Faire”

  1. Too bad I only just read about this… It’s about 15 km from where I live.
    A bit strange I never read about this, not even in the local news-sites.

    So let’s hope next year’s edition will have better promotions.

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  2. I’ve spent 2x 4 hours getting there and back. It was great and inspiring. Lots of nice people, really a great open festival. Not commercial at all, even the shops had great people. Next year a bit more promotion and a bit more central location (groningen is quite remote for most Dutch people). But it was great and i had lots of fun!

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  7. Well, the advertizing might have to do with the people organizing, but also with the people running these local TV and newspapers. They simply do not know what to expect of a Maker Faire…

    so, a big thanks for everything the orgnizers … organized so well, and for the rest, a bit of patience until our media get a grip on what Maker Faires actually are.
    By then, Reinoud “let’s video your appendicitis” Oerlemans, John “Big Brother” the Mol and Gaston will probably have taken them over.
    (sorry dutch joke, I could not resist).

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  8. Would I’ve known before …. despite the fact that from Munich it’s a couple of KM to Groningen, I’ve arranged my schedule accordingly to be able to visit the event.

    So, next time more upfront promotion and I’m there ..

    regards
    peter

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