October 12, 2018methoddan

Are you there mother? It’s me MakeFest.

Hello everyone, it’s been a while hasn’t it? It’s been “a minute”, as they say in hip hop parlance, although these days I’m more “hip op” than hip hop I’ve still got some moves. Did you think we’d forgotten about you until next year? Well we haven’t, and just when you thought it was safe to open your browser again, we’re back!

The photos you will see throughout this post were taken by our expert photographer JR Peterson. Big thanks to him. So the question shouldn’t be “who shot JR?” but instead “who did JR shoot?” with his camera, with his camera I mean!

A photo of Lois Tierney holding up some coulourful shawls
We love a dash of colour at MakeFest.

We intended to do an epic post here to thank everyone involved in Liverpool MakeFest 2018 right after the event, but in the months since it’s all been a bit hectic at MakeFest Manor. So better late than never (title of my autobiography) let us take a minute to roll the credits on this like a Marvel film, you wouldn’t believe how many hundreds of people there are in a VFX department by the way and what exactly is a “best boy” anyway? Sorry, I digress, let’s get to it!

First up, our fabulous founders! – Denise Jones, Mark Feltham and Caroline Keep, without whom there would be no Liverpool MakeFest in the first place, wow… that’s a sobering thought isn’t it?

Next up, this year’s awesome organising team – Jennifer Fenner, Mark Sabino, Zarino Zappia and also me (Dan Lynch), though I only joined towards the end it was great to be involved and help make things happen.

…and so onto the amazing crew of volunteers who kept this whole thing running, without them we couldn’t have distributed the food, helped the makers find their stands, cleaned up the spillages, or any of the other myriad jobs these people took on with vigour and gusto. Hats off to you all!

Laura James, Patrick Fenner, Hayley Trowbridge, Carwyn Edwards, Daniel Watson, Gary Mitchell, Laura Lomax, Luke Thomas, Mike McDaid, Peter Hurter, Samantha Colosimo, Sean Gleeson, Tony Terry, Alex Clewett, Harry Jones & Pauline Cox.

Including of course the rather dapper people you would have noticed from the Liverpool Steampunks group who helped with greeting attendees and directing them around the venue. – https://www.facebook.com/groups/llogael/

The amazing Rambots made by Little Sandbox UK, the kids loved these, even the 50 something kids :)
The amazing Rambots made by Little Sandbox UK, the kids loved these, even the 50 something kids 🙂

The Library staff were also accommodating and lovely about letting thousands of people with all kinds of crazy gadgets take over the building for a day. Thanks to them.

We had a live video link to Essen in Germany and also to China thanks to Pete From Essen and his roaming box of broadcasting tricks!

Pete from Essen broadcasting live to both Germany and China and he's not even breaking a sweat!
Pete from Essen broadcasting live to both Germany and China and he’s not even breaking a sweat!

So now we come to the most important thank you of all…

THE MAKERS!!! Big list incoming….

These wonderful creative people, who each year drag themselves out of bed, drag themselves across the country and sometimes across the world to bring us their most brilliant works and share their knowledge! They want to spread the word and inspire the future generations. It can seem a thankless task at times but it shouldn’t be, this is a thank you right? It may not be much but it’s the best we can do… our gift is our song (blog post) and this one’s for YOU! (Editors note: I seriously hope Elton John’s lawyers don’t read that bit haha).

If somehow you managed to miss Liverpool MakeFest or you just want a reminder of how great it was, we recommend you watch this brilliant 3 minute video by the talented folks at WeHeartTech CIC.

Liverpool MakeFest 2018 from wehearttech C.I.C. on Vimeo.

Last but not least of course we have to thank all the attendees who come along each year and make the event such a joy to participate in. Especially this year when temperatures on the day were just crazy. That’s the metrological term for it by the way “crazy”, just ask Michael Fish. It was over 30 degrees and blazing sun, yeah ok that’s not so impressive to you people who live in hot climates, but around here that’s pretty damn hot!

Here are a few selected quotes from attendees who took our exit survey on the day. The question was simple, “what did you like most about MakeFest?”…

  • “How interactive it was, wide array of different crafts and makers”
  • “Atmosphere-starfish!”
  • “The exuberance and eclectic mix, and the fact it was free and in the library so available to all”
  • “All of it to be honest!”

At the end of the event we gathered together for a team photo, sadly some people had left by then (or run off to Germany like Beano, we missed you man!) but you were with us in spirit!

A group shot of the LivMF18 crew stood in the foyer of the library
Go team!

…and so it is with a heavy heart that we close up the doors to MakeFest Manor for 2018. As Vinny Jones said in Lock Stock “it’s been emotional”. But it’s also been fantastic, fabulous and fun.. can’t think of any more F words right now but you get the point.

Once again a big THANK YOU to all of you and hopefully we’ll see you again soon 🙂

MakeFest out! (mic drop)

Dan

PS – To see more awesome photos, some by JR and some by (Lu) Lowe Creative (who we missed so much this year), see the Flickr account.

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