Warm Up Your Extruders, RepRap Festivals Are Back

April 12, 2022 by Tom Nardi 5 Comments

Like pretty much every other large gathering, the Midwest and East Coast RepRap Festivals had to be put on hold during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. But now that the United States is cautiously returning to something that looks a lot like normal, both Festivals have now confirmed they will be back to full-scale live events for 2022.

After experimenting with a virtual event and a scaled-down show in 2021, the Midwest RepRap Festival (MRRF) will be returning to the Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds in Goshen, Indiana from June 24th to the 26th. No tickets will be required for attendees or exhibitors, everyone is welcome to just show up and have a good time. There will however be sponsorship opportunities for anyone who wants to support this long-running event.

Summer already booked up? In that case, the East Coast RepRap Festival (ERRF) will be taking place from October 8th to the 9th at the APG Federal Credit Union Arena in Bel Air, Maryland. Tickets cost $10 for both exhibitors and attendees, though anyone under 17 gets in for free. Even though ERRF only confirmed their 2022 plans recently, it looks like there are only a few sponsor spots still left open.

Hackaday has attended both events in the past, and we’ve always come back blown away by the incredible variety of printers, projects, and products on display. It seems like there wouldn’t be that many different ways to show off melted plastic, but trust us, these folks always manage to surprise you. Given the amount of time that’s passed since either event was able to operate at normal capacity, we predict these 2022 Festivals are going to be smash hits that you won’t want to miss if you’re even remotely interested in 3D printing.

Next Weekend: The Midwest Reprap Festival

March 9, 2014 by Brian Benchoff 1 Comment

midwest

Guess what next weekend is? It’s the Midwest Reprap Festival, in Goshen, Indiana. We’ll also be there keeping tabs on an absurd amount of new RepRaps and other 3D printers, new filaments, and distributing a ludicrous amount of Hackaday swag.

The highlights of the fest include the folks from Lulzbot and UltiMachine, [Prusa] showing off his i3, [Nick Seward] and the Wally, Simpson, and Lisa RepRaps, and hundreds of other RepRappers showing off their latest projects and printers.

Here’s the best part: it’s all free! It would be cool if you register before making the trip out, but any way you look at it, it’ll be an awesome weekend. It’s also the largest US gathering of 3D printer aficionados that isn’t on the east or west coast.

We’re Going To The Midwest RepRap Fest

February 21, 2014 by Brian Benchoff 14 Comments

One month from now, Goshen, Indiana – deep in the land of Dairy Queens – will become one of the premier sites for RepRapping, 3D printing and everything involving open source manufacturing. It’s the 2nd annual Midwest RepRap Festival to be held March 14-16. Oh, Hackaday will also be there, cavorting around, distributing some swag, and doing some live videos and posts of the event.

Highlights of the Festival include [Prusa] giving a talk on the state of open source printing, [Sonny Monicou] discussing the challenges of his RepRap workshops, a roundtable discussion of the RepRap project, [Nicholas Seward] and his creations – the Wally, Simpson, and Lisa, along with a few folks from Lulzbot and UltiMachine. Basically, the only way to go to a bigger RepRap convention would be to visit a Maker Faire, and even that would only add a few hundred 9-year-olds astounded by printed Minecraft figurines.

If you’re willing to make the drive, there’s no fee to attend; just register, show up, and you’ll get a table for all that up-til-midnight RepRapping. There’s also a waffle breakfast on Sunday, along with me walking around makin’ it rain Hackaday stickers.