More than 300 makers and over 90 exhibitors will gather at Leopardstown Racecourse on 22 and 23 August as Dublin Maker celebrates its fifteenth festival. Free to attend and organised entirely by volunteers, the event has grown into Ireland’s largest maker festival, bringing together inventors, engineers, artists, crafters, students, educators and community groups for two days of creativity, innovation and hands-on learning.
Ahead of this year’s festival, I spoke with Dublin Maker Coordinator Amy Hassett about the maker movement in Ireland, this year’s highlights and why making remains as relevant today as ever.
Since its first festival, Dublin Maker has established itself as Ireland’s largest maker festival, celebrating creativity in all its forms. While technology is an important part of the event, visitors will also discover woodworking, textiles, arts, crafts, sustainability projects, musical instrument makers and community groups alongside robotics, engineering and electronics.
“Where else can you find roboticists sitting right next to traditional woodturners, or a synth-hacker sharing space with a loom weaver? Dublin Maker is unapologetically eclectic” comments Tomás Ward , a co-founder and one of the organisers.
That diversity reflects the philosophy behind the maker movement itself. As Amy Hassett explains, “A maker is somebody who makes things, but it’s also somebody who has a mindset of being willing to learn, to experiment, and to play with the world around them.”
The organisers deliberately cast the net widely. “Making is for everybody,” Amy comments. “That’s why we intentionally keep the reach very broad.”
Making has always been about more than producing objects. It encourages curiosity, experimentation and learning through practical experience, values that remain just as relevant today.
For Hassett, making connects people with both their communities and their own creativity. “To make things is such a foundational, fundamental human experience. It connects us to community, it connects us to our history, and it connects us to the world around us.”
That belief also reflects her own background in science communication. “My interest in science communication is about trying to build people’s confidence and interest in experimenting and playing, and in helping people understand the world and make decisions for themselves.”
She believes experimentation itself gives people confidence. “Experimentation gives people a sense of agency. You can try, you can explore, you can experiment, and you can come to an understanding of how things work.”
This year’s festival will be the largest yet. The programme includes 75 maker stands and 15 outdoor exhibits, while the number of hands-on workshops has doubled. Two workshop rooms will run activities across both days, giving visitors opportunities to build, create and experiment for themselves.
Among the highlights are the UCD Formula Student team and the racing car they have built, an expanded robotics display from Mechatrons, and a Hands-on HQ where visitors can build with cardboard, try coding for the first time and take part in STEM activities.
An open Fashion Show will run four times during the festival, inviting members of the public to showcase clothes they have made, mended or modified. Wood turners, crafters, quilters, needle felters, musical instrument makers and many others will also be exhibiting.
The Rediscovery Centre Repair Café will run on Sunday morning, giving visitors an opportunity to bring broken and much-loved items for a second life. Accessibility measures include a dedicated quiet area across both days, quiet hours from 10.00 to 11.30 on Sunday and Irish Sign Language interpretation on Saturday.
“We want there to be something for everybody,” says Hassett. “We want people to see things they maybe wouldn’t have thought of before.”
Unlike many exhibitions, Dublin Maker encourages conversations as much as demonstrations. Visitors are invited to meet the makers, hear the stories behind their projects and learn from their experiences.
“People love to hear the story behind a project. They come to chat to the makers themselves and understand their experience and ideas.”
For anyone thinking about exhibiting in future years, she has one simple message. “Don’t worry if your project isn’t finished. People love to see that too.”
One of the strongest themes emerging this year is community. Increasingly, people are discovering making not just as a hobby but as a way of meeting others with shared interests.
“The big theme I’m seeing this year is community around making. People are interested in how making can help them find friends, build community and get away from screens,” says Hassett.
That trend is reflected in the growing number of community groups taking part in Dublin Maker. “A lot of communities that make things are coming to the festival because people are asking how making can be used as a way of making friends and finding community.”
She also believes libraries are becoming increasingly important as places where people can learn new skills and meet others. “I think libraries are really positioning themselves as non-commercial third spaces where people can come together and build community.”
One of Dublin Maker’s defining features is that admission has remained free since the first festival fifteen years ago, helping to make the event accessible to as many people as possible.
“We’re most proud that this is the fifteenth year of the festival, and for fifteen years it’s been free,” says Hassett. “If you really care about getting people interested in making, you have to make sure the barriers to access are as low as humanly possible.”
The organisers also want visitors to feel welcome regardless of age, background or experience. “We want to use the maker mindset to build a really inclusive festival.”
The festival is supported by Research Ireland, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, RS Ireland, UCD and DCU, alongside other partners and supporters.
For the organisers, the success of Dublin Maker is measured not simply by attendance but by the inspiration people take home with them.
“If I hear one story about somebody taking up a hobby, considering a career, or discovering an interest they wouldn’t have otherwise considered after coming to Dublin Maker, I’ll be happy,” says Hassett.
Ultimately, she hopes the festival encourages people to explore opportunities they may never previously have considered. “If somebody tells me their daughter wants to be an engineer because of Dublin Maker, or that they’re thinking of going back to college, that’s success.”
Dublin Maker is part of a wider international maker movement that celebrates creativity, innovation and learning through making. Having reported from Maker Faire Rome, Europe’s largest maker event, for Irish Tech News, it was interesting to discuss Dublin Maker’s place within that global community with Amy Hassett.
While operating on a much larger scale, Maker Faire Rome shares the same ethos of curiosity, experimentation and hands-on creativity that underpins Dublin Maker. Irish Tech News has covered Maker Faire Rome for the past eight years. You can explore last year’s Irish Tech News coverage of Maker Faire Rome.
The festival is served by public transport and has on-site parking. A wheelchair-accessible shuttle bus will operate between Sandyford Luas stop and Leopardstown every 25 minutes across both days.
Billy Linehan is a freelance writer covering innovation, tech for good and entrepreneurship, and a regular contributor to Irish Tech News.
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