Tom Eppenberger Jr’s blog

I was really excited to attend Maker Faire Bay Area again this year, but ended up being pretty disappointed.

Some complaints (and whining)…

• Tickets at the door were $25 per adult — more than double last year. Looking at the official website for Maker Faire tonight, I see a few other people complaining of the same thing. Found out (after the fact) that tickets online prior to the event could have been purchased for $10 less…
• Craft section was easily 1/4 of last year and was in too small of a building. There were a lot of people in there, both buying and selling, and so I am not sure why they relegated it to that space. Hopefully this gets fixed in the future.
• Lots, and lots, and lots of repeat exhibits and presenters. Why?
• All the coolest stuff seems to have been in the smallest areas. Or, was it the fact that the cool stuff was just really popular and so all the people made it seems smaller?

Some highlights…

• The Infamous Marshmallow Shooter thanks to Howtoons. We could have bought the simple kit to make one for $5, but didn’t. I do see one in our future however…
• LUNAR (Livermore Unit of the National Association of Rocketry) had a cool rocket building setup. We bought a kit for $5 for Lane, but didn’t launch it there. I said “nah, we can do it at home.” Ass! Totally should have done it there. The rockets are multi-use, and Lane would have loved to have seen his rocket get shot up into the air using one of their big motors. Ass!
• 19 foot Tesla Towers — electricity performance… nuff said.
• “Art Golf” — Lane loved playing mini-golf here. The line was a bit crazy, but well worth it.

We had an okay time, but were really put off by the chaos that was the Craft section. This was the main reason that Shelly went back this year, and I have to agree that it was one of the highlights of last year’s faire. Too bad they screwed this up, and hopefully it gets fixed next year. And, if we do make it back for a third straight year in 2009, I’ll be sure and buy advance tickets…