from Hacker News

Next Week’s Maker Faire in San Mateo Could Be Bay Area’s Last

by ctulek on 5/10/19, 6:58 PM with 45 comments

• by benzofuran on 5/11/19, 3:05 AM

  It's a shame - in 2008/9/10 it was really something to see, but as a few other commenters have said, it's (and a lot of the maker movement for that matter) have declined a bit.

  I personally think this is due to the infantilization in part of a lot of media outlets, where the emphasis has been placed on getting the ideas into the most hands possible instead of folks who'd actually benefit. Focusing the faires around 3D printing geegaws and cosplay items is fine if you want to make numbers, but you get consumers and the followons, and not creators from that.

  You can think of it in the same vein as Marvel movies or Harry Potter books - low content, low thinking media that raises insane amounts of money based on appealing to the mass market and the wannabe 'geek' crowd that doesn't tend to do much innovating except in consumption methods.

• by lazzlazzlazz on 5/10/19, 11:32 PM

  I first went to Maker Faire in 2012 or so, and it was incredible - the variety I saw was unreal, with so many smaller and interesting projects. I've gone three more times since then, and each time it's been less and less inspiring.

  More uniformity, more emphasis on unrelated consumer products like pre-prepared food offerings, less emphasis on interesting electronics kits. Maybe I became jaded, but maybe Maker Faire has tried to target a lower and lower common denominator in an effort to boost revenues.

• by alunaryak on 5/11/19, 2:03 AM

  I helped present a Tesla coil demo at one of the first Maker Faires (maybe 2006 or 2007?) and it was an absolute blast. It was also decidedly no frills, focused on the artsy, crazy, creative projects. I don't recall much, if anything, in the way of commercial products.

  I wonder if it would be financially tenable if they scale it down and get back that home grown feel. Then again the bay area is a very different place now.

• by mceachen on 5/10/19, 7:11 PM

  This is such an epic, annual celebration of learning and creativity. Losing it would be a tragedy.

  How do the economics not work out here? 100-150K visitors/year, each dropping (on average? $20 for entrance ticket)?

  Don't they require commercial presenters to pay for their space?

  How much does it cost to rent the San Mateo Fairgrounds?

• by newnewpdro on 5/11/19, 4:34 AM

  It's been terrible for years, the last time I went a major automaker had taken over a huge swath of parking lot and was giving test drives, I think it was Chevrolet IIRC.

  Long ago it was full of grassroots makers showing off their DIY stuff but it quickly became a commercialized trade show targeting these folks and their audience as consumers instead of hosting them.

• by gaze on 5/11/19, 3:07 AM

  I'm heartbroken that Halted closed. Is tinkering with physical stuff in the bay area dead?

  Or well, scaled back significantly in comparison to a decade ago.

• by jpm_sd on 5/11/19, 4:07 AM

  Good. It's become an over commercialized, over crowded mess.

• by mirimir on 5/11/19, 4:48 AM

  There's something ironic about a "Maker Faire" that depends on a commercial organization with many employees.