Brno is hitting its stride, and makers are leading the charge. While Prague’s smaller cousin often likes to joke that it functions more like a village, its hefty population and roughly 80,000 university students prove there is nothing small about its creative energy. Fueled by young minds, big ideas, and a healthy appetite for technology, traditional craft, and hands-on experimentation, the city has firmly established itself as fertile ground for the global maker movement.
Since launching in 2019, Maker Faire Brno has grown exponentially, evolving into a vibrant gathering that welcomes around 7,500 visitors and hundreds of makers hailing from across Czechia and beyond. Central to this growth is Fab Lab Brno, which has served as a key partner to the Make More team—the driving force behind Maker Faires throughout the Czech Republic. Together, they have continuously built up the local community one maker at a time. This weekend, from October 17 through 18, Maker Faire Brno returns for its eighth edition, showcasing a momentum that refuses to slow down.
The venue itself plays a major role in the event’s unique magic. Brno’s Exhibition Halls are tailor-made for a Maker Faire, boasting striking architecture, soaring ceilings, floods of natural light, an on-site planetarium, a sprawling main hall, and plenty of hidden nooks and crannies to explore. Around every corner, attendees encounter curiosity in action, clever engineering feats, creative experiments, and serious maker talent.
Prusa Champions Czech Ingenuity and Hands-On Challenges
No discussion of Czech making is complete without recognizing Prusa, a driving force behind the explosion of Maker Faires across the country. Known globally for its integrated, in-house approach to manufacturing, Prusa serves as a shining example of what happens when the maker spirit is placed at the absolute heart of a business. Having recently exhibited at Maker Faire Bay Area, the company is bringing its trademark enthusiasm directly to Brno.
This year, attendees have an enticing incentive to get their hands dirty. A shiny new Prusa 3D printer is up for grabs as part of the event’s Maker Challenge. Participants are invited to show the team how a clever idea and 3D printing can give discarded items a second life as useful, functional tools, with the ultimate reward of heading home with a fresh machine to fuel their next big project. For those unable to make the trip to Brno, Prusa will also be catching crowds at Maker Faire Rome the following week.
A Diverse Showcase of Projects Bridging Art, Science, and Engineering
Maker Faire is fundamentally a place where boundaries between engineering, art, science, and everyday problem-solving get delightfully blurry. The 2026 lineup in Brno exemplifies this expansive multidisciplinary approach, featuring everything from custom 3D-printed speakers and DIY electronics to innovative uses for garden waste, accessible technology, and mechanical tinkering.
Among the standout projects is Acoustika 3D, a custom-designed 3D-printed loudspeaker created by SIMPLIXITY. Merging a deep love for Drum and Bass music with engineering and additive manufacturing, the project invites visitors to peer inside, examine its individual components, and discover how precise enclosure design directly shapes sound quality.
On the visual and chemical arts front, maker Jan Grygerek presents "Sublisica: From bubble to glass." Using tiny frozen soap-bubble crystals as a starting point, Grygerek merges photography, chemistry, and design. When off-the-shelf tools proved inadequate for preserving these fleeting patterns, he designed and built his own specialized engraving machine to etch them permanently onto glass.
Environmental sustainability also takes center stage with the Biouhel project, which demonstrates how piles of pruned branches from garden maintenance can be transformed into biochar. This porous, carbon-rich material helps soil retain vital water and nutrients while offering potential long-term carbon-storage benefits through simple, local ingenuity.
Academic and institutional research heavily influences the exhibition floor as well. Masaryk University’s computer science labs bring abstract concepts into the physical world with interactive demonstrations, including a robot that draws using a pen and a marionette controlled entirely by human movement. These research initiatives turn algorithms, robotics, and human-computer interaction into tangible, playable experiences that marry maker education with hard science.
Other highlights explore specialized technologies and practical mechanics. Visitors interested in additive manufacturing can explore materials, equipment, and complex applications ranging from standard FDM to resin printing via 3Dfil.cz. Meanwhile, an interactive workshop dedicated to bearings allows participants to disassemble and reassemble the small mechanical components that keep skateboards, bikes, and roller skates rolling smoothly.
Addressing urban safety, the Brno University of Technology introduces KAMaRAD, a prototype combining standard sensors with millimeter-wave radar to detect potential road hazards and better protect cyclists and vulnerable road users in low-visibility conditions. For those preferring low-tech, hands-on thrills, Baťa Customs invites visitors to build, sand, paint, and customize their own wooden gravity racers in a mobile workshop that celebrates traditional craft and mechanical physics without requiring a single battery.
Musical exploration finds a home in RaveBOX, a project blending a synthesizer and a sequencer into an experimental sound machine. What started as a playful electronics experiment has evolved into an accessible musical instrument for anyone looking to build rhythms and discover unexpected sounds. Similarly, a high-performance 3D-printed RC jet boat developed at Brno University of Technology combines durable engineering polymers, high-current power supplies, and custom onboard telemetry controlled by an ESP32 chip to wirelessly transmit real-time GPS speed, battery voltage, and component operating temperatures back to the shore.
Workshops and Stages Fueling Active Participation
Maker Faire Brno extends far beyond passive observation, offering an extensive workshop program designed to encourage attendees to roll up their sleeves and learn by doing. Ranging from short 30-minute introductions to immersive 90-minute deep dives, the sessions cater to children, teens, adults, and families alike.
Workshops cover a remarkable breadth of topics, including space engineering, textiles, robotics, and advanced electronics. Beginners can design and print space-themed objects or explore ceramic 3D printing and parametric design. Those inclined toward robotics and code can build and program Otto robots, assemble combat robots, practice soldering, or experiment with STM32 microcontrollers and NXP development boards.
Space exploration is heavily represented through collaborative sessions where participants can build working CubeSat models alongside student space team YSpace or design space-inspired hardware with rocket team SoRC. Younger makers can also launch water rockets powered solely by compressed air and water.
Smart device creation is highlighted by LaskaKit, where participants build Wi-Fi-connected e-paper information displays, while the Nitlab workshop bridges textiles and technology by utilizing punch cards to control mechanical knitting machines and craft patterned scarves. Additional sessions invite attendees to design custom jewelry, explore ceramic printing, and understand how digital manufacturing is reshaping modern fashion and footwear.
Beyond the workshop tables, the event’s Repair Zone highlights the principles of the right-to-repair movement by demonstrating how broken household items can be restored to functionality. The main stage anchors the weekend with a dynamic schedule featuring a 24-hour Student Hardware Hackathon, space exploration presentations with ESERO Czech Republic, spectacular science demonstrations, and discussions on Arduino hacking and 3D printing optimization. As the weekend progresses, the stage hosts hackathon winners, digital footwear innovators, student-led artificial intelligence projects, and an open microphone session for makers eager to share their latest builds with the community.
