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Mark Ballard
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Maker Faire Returns!
"Woodstock for Inventors" Returns to San Mateo, CA, Expands to Austin, TX
"A celebration of tinkerers, garage hobbyists and gearheads of all stripes" -- NEWSWEEK
Sebastopol, CA (February 21, 2007)—Last Spring, the first-ever Maker Faire opened the eyes of thousands—over 20,000 to be exact!—to the joy of creating, building and inventing. This year, Maker Faire will reach thousands more. The festival will return to the San Mateo Fairgrounds, May 19 & 20, and expand to Austin, TX, with another two-day event, October 20 & 21 at the Travis County Fairgrounds.
Established by the tech-loving creators of the gloriously irreverent Make (www.makezine.com) and Craft (www.craftzine.com) 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. Among the over-20,000 attendees at last year's event: The MythBusters, Darryl Hannah and Steve Wozniak. This year, the San Mateo event is projected to draw close to 40,000 attendees.
The success of Make and Craft is testament to the massive underground community of inventors, hackers, indie crafters, creative recyclers, or as we like to call them, Makers. 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 Dougherty, 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."
Specific event highlights will be released in the coming months. For press information please contact Mark Ballard at 212-255-8455 or
For the very latest information and updates, please visit: www.makerfaire.com
O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism. www.oreilly.com
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"With throngs of young and old alike packing into the San Mateo fairgrounds, the 2007 Maker Faire was an improbable mixture of spectacle and practicality--a combination of engineering, crafts, science, and art that seemed to sufficiently blur the lines between all four."
-Bryan Gardiner, PC Magazine, May 21, 2007
"This is where inventors and artists come to share their wares."
- CBS Sunday Morning
"Don't be misled by the name of the weekend's staid-sounding 'Maker Faire'. The San Mateo-based event is a celebration of destruction as much as innovation, with touches of art and anarchy thrown in."
- Lisa M. Krieger, San Jose Mercury News, May 20, 2007
"Combining old-fashioned crafters with forward-thinking technorati, fashionistas, and mad scientists of all stripes, the Maker Faire is a hands-on celebration of all things DIY brought to life by Make magazine."
- The Onion, October 18, 2007
"Here at the Maker Faire in San Mateo, all of your twisted dreams can come true."
-HOST, G4, Attack of the Show! May 23, 2007
