Maker Meh

Everything to everybody was Maker Faire last weekend. I rate it a solid Meh.

My intention had been assiduously avoid the whole darn thing. Although this sounds easy, TheRoommate had two interactive exhibits, and some special friends from Seattle had flown down for a super secret Maker Faire mission.

Unfortunately for TheRoommate, folks he'd tapped for assistance were less helpful than desired. I called to check in on Saturday afternoon and discovered that another pair of hands would be really, really helpful. So I ditched the avoidance plan and headed over. The place was a complete anthill of activity. There was something going on in every direction. So why the Meh rating?

From my perch back in the SteamPunk corral. I realized that I've seen a lot of this art before, the Neverwas Haul, and the World's Largest Mousetrap were our venerable neighbors. Elsewhere, throughout the fair, a similar theme played out: old BurningMan exhibits on display.

Additionally, theRoomate's exhibits were sandwiched between two No-talent stages (although happily far away from the no-talent music stages). The No-talent performance is part of it. Just because someone puts on a spangly dress and gets up on a stage doesn't mean the performance is worthy. I had to endure an awful lot of not-worthy throughout the evening: think the Garbage Bag Fashion Show, The Mentos-Diet Coke Fountains, Caterwaul Carolers and Unsexy Old-Timey Burlesque.

Another fundamental issue is one of cost. A family of four with two elementary school age children would have paid $70 just to get through the gates. The food vendors were charging astronomical rates, and by astronomical, I mean $4 for a small soft serve cone. That puts a day-long outing at over $100 if no one warned them to bring their own snacks and drinks.

Lastly, very few of the exhibits were truly interactive. There was lots to look at, not much to do. Some exhibits had safety perimeters that were so wide, you could not really see the exhibit. Some popular exhibits had perimeters that were so small that folks were crowded 10 deep, but only the first few rows could see what was going on. Some exhibits reminded me a lot of re-tooled science exhibits. Which is to say interesting to look at, to see the way a scientific principle is demonstrated, but on a practical level, fairly useless.

In retrospect, I was glad to have gone. It was a great social outing (all my friends were there), and a nice day to be out in the sun. I finally got to see TheRoommate's artwork out in public. However, I'm really glad I didn't have to pay the gate fee, and that I was only seduced by one lone soft serve cone.