Brno is hitting its stride, and the city’s vibrant maker community is leading the charge. Often affectionately overshadowed by its larger neighbor, Prague, Brno likes to jokingly refer to itself as a village. Yet, with a substantial population and a thriving academic community home to some 80,000 students, there is nothing small about the creative energy pulsing through the city. A unique combination of young minds, ambitious ideas, and a healthy appetite for technology, traditional crafts, and hands-on experimentation has turned Brno into one of the most fertile grounds for the maker movement in Central Europe.
Since launching its inaugural event in 2019, Maker Faire Brno has expanded steadily. It now welcomes around 7,500 visitors and hundreds of creators hailing from across Czechia and beyond. A vital engine behind this growth has been Fab Lab Brno, which has worked closely alongside the Make More team—the organization responsible for spearheading Maker Faires across the Czech Republic—to build and nurture the community one maker at a time. This weekend, from October 17 to 18, Maker Faire Brno returns for its eighth consecutive edition, proving that the local momentum continues to accelerate.
Much of the event’s unique atmosphere stems from its venue. Brno’s Exhibition Halls are seemingly custom-built for a Maker Faire, boasting striking architecture, soaring ceilings, floods of natural light, and even an integrated planetarium. The sprawling main hall and its surrounding nooks and crannies provide the ideal labyrinth for exploration. Around every corner, attendees encounter curiosity in action, clever engineering feats, creative experiments, and serious maker talent.
Prusa Research Fuels Local Innovation and the Maker Spirit
A major catalyst for the explosive growth of Maker Faires throughout the Czech Republic has been Prusa Research. Known globally for its desktop 3D printers, the company represents a shining showcase of Czech ingenuity. Its integrated, in-house manufacturing approach stands as a testament to what can be achieved when making is placed at the absolute heart of a business. Having recently exhibited at Maker Faire Bay Area, Prusa is bringing its unmistakable maker ethos directly to Brno.
This year, attendees have a tangible incentive to put their creativity to the test through the official Maker Challenge. Participants are invited to show the Prusa team how a clever idea and 3D printing can give discarded, everyday items a second life as useful, functional tools. The grand prize offers participants a chance to head home with a brand-new Prusa 3D printer to fuel their next big idea. For those unable to make the trip to Brno this weekend, the company will also be exhibiting at Maker Faire Rome the following week.
Ten Highlighted Projects Showcasing Diverse Ingenuity
Maker Faire is fundamentally a space where the traditional boundaries separating engineering, art, science, and everyday problem-solving blur away entirely. The 2026 lineup in Brno spans an extraordinary breadth of disciplines, ranging from custom 3D-printed audio equipment and DIY electronics to ecological uses for garden waste, accessible technology, and hands-on mechanical tinkering.
Among the standout exhibits is Acoustika 3D: SIMPLIXITY, a project born when a passion for Drum & Bass met advanced engineering and 3D printing. Visitors can examine a custom-designed, 3D-printed loudspeaker from the inside out, exploring its components and discovering how enclosure design directly dictates acoustic sound quality.
In the realm where science meets visual art, maker Jan Grygerek presents Sublisica: From bubble to glass. Starting with tiny frozen soap-bubble crystals as his raw material, Grygerek merges photography, chemistry, and design. When off-the-shelf equipment proved inadequate for preserving these fleeting natural patterns, he took matters into his own hands and engineered a custom engraving machine to etch the delicate designs onto glass.
Environmental sustainability also takes center stage with the Biouhel project, which demonstrates how piles of pruned branches and standard garden waste can be transformed into biochar. This porous, carbon-rich material helps agricultural and garden soil retain vital water and nutrients while offering potential long-term carbon-storage benefits through simple domestic ingenuity.
Academic research and applied science find heavy representation through Masaryk University’s Department of Computer Science labs. By presenting physical computing projects—such as a robotic arm that draws with a pen and a marionette controlled entirely by human movement—the university translates abstract algorithms, robotics, and human-computer interaction into tangible, playable experiences that bridge formal education and hands-on making.
The commercial and amateur ecosystem of additive manufacturing is heavily represented by platforms like 3Dfil.cz, offering visitors a comprehensive playground to explore materials, equipment, and printed examples spanning FDM, resin printing, and specialized high-strength industrial applications. Nearby, an interactive mechanical workshop invites the public to dive into the mechanics of everyday objects by taking apart and reassembling the bearings found in skateboards, bikes, and roller skates, teaching foundational repair skills.
Addressing public safety and infrastructure, the Brno University of Technology introduces KAMaRAD, a prototype that merges sensors with millimeter-wave radar to detect potential road hazards and protect vulnerable road users like cyclists in low-visibility conditions. Meanwhile, Baťa Customs brings traditional woodworking and mechanical thinking together through a mobile workshop where visitors can sand, paint, and assemble their own wooden gravity-powered racers.
Sound and music experimentation thrive through projects like RaveBOX, a portable instrument that bridges synthesizer mechanics and step-sequencing, inviting visitors to twist knobs and build rhythms. Expanding into high-performance marine engineering, another student-led project showcases a powerful, 3D-printed RC jet boat powered by a water pump system. Built from durable engineering polymers, the vessel utilizes custom onboard telemetry controlled by an ESP32 chip to wirelessly transmit GPS speed, battery voltage, and component temperatures back to shore in real-time.
Workshops Offer Immersive Learning and Hands-On Craftsmanship
Maker Faire Brno extends far beyond static exhibitions, functioning primarily as an immersive environment where visitors can roll up their sleeves and build things themselves. The 2026 workshop schedule covers a remarkable spectrum of disciplines, including 3D printing, robotics, electronics, space technology, textiles, and traditional crafts. Designed for participants of all ages and skill levels—from curious children and aspiring engineers to seasoned tinkerers—the sessions range from quick, 30-minute introductions to deep-dive workshops lasting 90 minutes or more.
Attendees can design and print space-themed objects, explore ceramic 3D printing, or dive into parametric design. In the robotics and electronics sector, visitors can build and program Otto robots, assemble combat robots, practice professional soldering techniques, or construct functional digital clocks and Wi-Fi-connected e-paper information displays using advanced microcontrollers and development boards.
Space exploration is heavily featured through collaborative sessions with student space teams such as YSpace and rocket team SoRC, where participants can build working CubeSat models, design space-inspired hardware, or launch compressed-air water rockets. For those interested in the intersection of traditional textiles and modern technology, the Nitlab workshop allows participants to use punch cards to control mechanical knitting machines and create custom-patterned scarves.
Complementing the hands-on workshops, the festival’s dedicated Repair Zone highlights the growing right-to-repair movement, demonstrating how broken household objects can be diagnosed, fixed, and restored rather than discarded. The central stage acts as the intellectual heartbeat of the weekend, hosting a packed schedule that includes a 24-hour Student Hardware Hackathon, space exploration seminars hosted by ESERO Czech Republic, spectacular live science experiments, hardware hacking panels, and open-mic presentations where local makers share their latest developmental milestones with the community.
