[lazzlazzlazz]

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.

[saboot]

Yes, the last maker faire I went to had what I both loved, and hated, about it summed up in two adjacent booths.

One was a young girl teaching passerbys to sew a purse together using recycled jeans and fundraising for animal rescue missions.

The adjacent booth was to pay $15 for a "crystal therapy healing and ionic rebalancing" session.

[extrapickles]

I only went as a sponsor a few times as part of a small 4 person company, but each year the fees increased to the point that you almost had to sell stuff with obscene markups (not low volume hobbyist stuff) and they started only caring about the very large sponsors.

Our last year there (somewhere around 2012), they had this fancy "sponsors only area" that had free food/beer/etc and took up a large amount of floor space (it was at least 20'x20') that otherwise could have gone to actual makers exhibits.

I think what happened is that they started chasing sponsors, when they should have been focusing on the makers, and vetting that the sponsors were doing something attendees would be interested in directly (eg: no large java booths).

[kqr2]

I think they should have split the event into Maker Faire for adults and Maker Faire for kids / family. Also have more hands-on workshops and less infomercial tech talks.

[beenBoutIT]

It seems geared towards foodies and kids.