Brno is hitting its stride, and makers are leading the charge. Often playfully overshadowed by Prague, the Czech Republic’s second-largest city likes to joke that it is merely a village. Yet, with a massive population and a vibrant student body numbering around 80,000, there is nothing small about its creative energy. A unique blend of youthful enthusiasm, grand ideas, and a healthy appetite for technology, traditional craft, and hands-on experimentation has transformed Brno into exceptionally fertile ground for the maker movement.
Since launching in 2019, Maker Faire Brno has steadily expanded its footprint. The event now welcomes approximately 7,500 visitors and hundreds of makers hailing from across Czechia and beyond. Fab Lab Brno has served as a vital partner to the Make More team—the organization behind Maker Faire initiatives throughout the Czech Republic—helping to build a cohesive community one maker at a time. The momentum continues to build as Maker Faire Brno returns for its eighth edition, bringing together innovators, educators, and curious minds for a weekend dedicated to invention and hands-on discovery.
The choice of venue plays a significant role in the event’s unique atmosphere. Brno’s Exhibition Halls are virtually tailor-made for a Maker Faire, offering striking architecture, soaring ceilings, floods of natural light, a built-in planetarium, a sprawling main hall, and countless architectural nooks and crannies to explore. Around every corner, attendees encounter curiosity in action, clever engineering feats, creative technical experiments, and serious maker talent.
Prusa’s Local Roots and the Maker Challenge
As a driving force behind the explosion of Maker Faires across the Czech Republic, Prusa Research brings its distinctive maker spirit home to Brno. Serving as a shining showcase of Czech ingenuity, Prusa’s integrated, in-house manufacturing approach demonstrates the powerful results of placing making at the absolute heart of a business.
At this year’s event, the stakes are raised with a prominent Maker Challenge featuring a tangible reward: a brand-new Prusa 3D printer. Organizers are inviting participants to demonstrate how a clever idea and 3D printing technology can give discarded items a second useful life as functional, everyday tools. Successful innovators just might head home with the hardware needed to fuel their next major project. For those unable to make the trip to Brno, Prusa will also bring its exhibits to Maker Faire Rome the following week.
Ten Projects Highlighting Diverse Maker Talent
Maker Faire is a space where the traditional boundaries separating engineering, art, science, and everyday problem-solving dissolve into creative collaboration. A selection of projects from the Brno lineup underscores the breadth of this year’s exhibition, ranging from custom 3D-printed audio equipment and DIY electronics to innovative approaches for managing garden waste, accessible technology, and mechanical tinkering.
Among the standout projects is Acoustika 3D, presented under the name SIMPLIXITY. Born from a shared passion for Drum & Bass music, engineering, and 3D printing, the project features a custom-designed, fully 3D-printed loudspeaker. Visitors can examine the internal components, explore how the enclosure design directly shapes acoustic properties, and understand the engineering behind the sound.
In the realm of fine arts and precision craftsmanship, maker Jan Grygerek presents Sublisica. Utilizing tiny, frozen soap-bubble crystals as a starting point, Grygerek merges photography, chemistry, and industrial design. When off-the-shelf equipment failed to meet his precise requirements, he engineered and built his own custom engraving machine to preserve these ephemeral patterns permanently on glass.
Environmental sustainability also takes center stage with the Biouhel project, which addresses the challenge of managing garden waste. By converting piles of pruned branches into biochar—a porous, carbon-rich material—the project demonstrates how yard waste can be transformed into a valuable resource that helps soil retain crucial moisture and nutrients while offering potential long-term carbon storage benefits.
Academic research meets public engagement at the exhibit hosted by Masaryk University’s computer science labs. By showcasing physical computing projects, such as a robotic pen-drawing apparatus and a marionette controlled entirely by human movement, researchers translate abstract algorithms and robotics into tangible, interactive experiences.
Materials and manufacturing methods are equally well represented. The 3Dfil.cz exhibit functions as a comprehensive playground for additive manufacturing enthusiasts, allowing visitors to compare materials, hardware, and applications spanning FDM, resin printing, and specialized high-strength industrial uses. Nearby, an interactive workshop on mechanical bearings lets visitors roll up their sleeves to remove, service, and reinstall the critical components found in skateboards, bicycles, and roller skates.
Automotive safety and urban mobility receive an innovative twist through KAMaRAD, a prototype developed at the Brno University of Technology. Designed to assist when traditional cameras struggle with poor visibility, the system integrates standard sensors with millimeter-wave radar to detect potential road hazards and enhance safety for cyclists and other vulnerable road users.
For those interested in traditional mechanics devoid of electronics, Baťa Customs presents a wooden gravity racer workshop. Participants can sand, paint, assemble, and customize their own gravity-powered vehicles, merging traditional woodworking craft with mechanical assembly.
Electronic music enthusiasts find common ground at the RaveBOX exhibit. Operating as a hybrid synthesizer and sequencer designed for open experimentation, RaveBOX invites users to manipulate physical controls and craft rhythms, transforming a playful electronics experiment into an accessible musical instrument.
Adding to the engineering marvels is a high-performance, 3D-printed RC jet boat developed at Brno University of Technology. Powered by an integrated water pump and jet system, the vessel combines durable engineering polymers with high-current power supplies and custom onboard telemetry controlled via an ESP32 microcontroller. The system wirelessly transmits real-time GPS speed, battery voltage, and component temperatures back to shore during testing demonstrations.
Workshops and Live Stage Programming
Maker Faire Brno extends far beyond static exhibitions, functioning primarily as an immersive environment for hands-on learning. The 2026 workshop program encompasses a diverse array of disciplines, including 3D printing, robotics, electronics, space engineering, textiles, and traditional crafts. Sessions range from concise thirty-minute introductions to deep-dive workshops lasting ninety minutes or more, catering to children, students, adults, and families alike.
Programming highlights include introductory sessions on 3D printing where participants can design and produce space-themed objects, alongside explorations into ceramic 3D printing and parametric design. Robotics and electronics workshops offer opportunities to build and program Otto robots, assemble combat robots, practice professional soldering techniques, or construct functional digital clocks utilizing advanced development boards.
Space exploration features prominently through collaborations with student space teams such as YSpace and rocketry groups like SoRC, where attendees can construct working CubeSat models or launch compressed-air water rockets. Additionally, LaskaKit hosts sessions on building Wi-Fi-connected e-paper information displays, bridging electronics and practical utility.
Textile arts merge with digital technology at the Nitlab workshop, where participants use punch cards to operate mechanical knitting machines and create patterned scarves. Complementing the workshops, a dedicated Repair Zone demonstrates the principles of the right-to-repair movement by showing how broken household items can be restored to working order.
The main festival stage anchors the weekend’s events with a dynamic schedule spanning student hackathons, aerospace presentations with ESERO Czech Republic, scientific demonstrations, and discussions on digital footwear and artificial intelligence projects. Concluding with open-mic sessions for local innovators, Maker Faire Brno highlights the collaborative spirit and ingenuity driving the region’s maker community forward.
