What is Maker Faire?
Maker Faire is a gathering of fascinating, curious people who enjoy learning and who love sharing what they can do. From engineers to artists to scientists to crafters, Maker Faire is a venue for these "makers" to show hobbies, experiments, projects.
We call it the Greatest Show (& Tell) on Earth - a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness.
Glimpse the future and get inspired!
Featured Makers
Happy Hippocampus
The Happy Hippocampus provides a curated sensory play experience for all ages to enjoy. Visit our display for hands on sensory play, resources to use at home, and free fidgets. As a neurodivergent family we love providing a calming space at community events with hands on tools for grounding. We also give out free fidgets to any one who stops by!
Tour the Night Sky Planetarium
Explore the night sky in Amazement Square's portable planetarium! Immerse yourself in a 360-degree view of the sky as we discover stars, constellations, and the moon.
Learn to Solder with L3Harris
The Soldering booth will leverage equipment from Vector Space's makerspace facility to introduce attendees to soldering. We will solder a small circuit board that will be co-branded Vector Space and L3Harris. The board will have a switch, a light bulb, and a resistor. Attendees will learn how to complete a circuit and solder the elements to the board and walk away with a functioning keepsake that displays their newly learned skill. L3Harris volunteers will assist and run the booth for the duration of the event (11-4pm) in three shifts.
Musical Geodesic Dome
An amazing 7 foot tall geodesic dome that acts like a piano only with this "instrument" the musician just touches one (or many) of the 25 struts of the geodesic dome to trigger musical sounds. It's a combination of art, geometry, and architecture!
Backwoods3D live printing with the SnapmakerU1
Backwoods3D had a great time vending with you all last year. If accepted again our plans this year include bringing more assistance so there is never a disruption between answering 3D questions or taking sales with our family friendly articulating and fidget 3D prints. Additionally, we now have a completely silent power bank we take to events and demonstrate our SnapmakerU1 4 tool head 3D printer. This printer doesn't release pre-orders until April but we got ours early on Kickstarter and it has been a huge hit at shows as multiple tool head printers are still very uncommon. We showcase our Dinosaurs, animals, fidgets, dragons, and other mixed printed mediums like clickers, embedded magnets, and printing on fabric.
BattleBot Armageddon and Creature Combat in 2026
Armageddon is back! After our first trip to the big bot arena in Las Vegas last September, the infamous 250-lb BattleBot Armageddon returns—battle-tested, upgraded, and hungry for more. We laughed, we cried, and we learned some hard lessons live, in front of an audience (no pressure!). Those lessons helped push Armageddon from raw prototype to a seriously dangerous, dual-armed combat machine. Stop by this year to see the 250-lb BattleBot helping usher in the future of BattleBots and Creature Combat in 2026—and talk with the team building it from the ground up.
MAKE Roanoke
Come engrave a keychain at MAKE Roanoke's booth using our pantograph engraver. Stay and compete in a friendly game of Hextraction while you learn more about Roanoke's first non-profit makerspace!
Natural Dye with plants
I plan on having two tents as I have in previous years. One tent will hold my artwork for sale. The other tent will have a vat of Indigo where participants can pay a small fee of two dollars to choose something to dye with different folding techniques. I am also going to have a table with a display of plants that give a variety of colors with factual information.
