Maker Faire Happy Valley returns for its second year on Saturday, Oct. 3, and Sunday, Oct. 4, with an expanded weekend of creativity, invention and hands-on experiences at Axemann Brewery and Titan Hollow in Bellefonte.
The free, family-friendly event organized by Discovery Space and The Rivet will be held 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, bringing together nationally followed creators alongside local artists, inventors, engineers, hobbyists and tinkerers.
Following its debut in 2025, Maker Faire Happy Valley is growing into a bigger weekend experience designed to draw families, creatives, curious minds and visitors from across Pennsylvania and beyond.
“Maker Faire is a celebration of what happens when people are curious enough to ask ‘what if?’ and brave enough to try,” Michele Crowl, executive director of Discovery Space and The Rivet, said. “We saw that spirit come to life at our first Faire, and this year we’re bringing even more people together. It’s an opportunity to see incredible things, learn from the people who make them and, we hope, leave inspired to make something of your own.”
This year’s Faire has a featured maker lineup of influencers and experts making the trip to Bellefonte to share their work in person.
Leah Houghtaling, traveling from upstate New York, is a self-taught woodworker and lifelong tinkerer with hundreds of thousands of followers online. With more than 25 years of woodworking experience, Houghtaling is known for her “Log Hugger” approach, her one-of-a-kind creations and her belief in using every bit of wood she can. She will demonstrate her work and share her popular Comfort Birds.
Becky Stern, traveling from Brooklyn, New York, is an independent content creator and STEM influencer known for hundreds of DIY tutorials spanning electronics, microcontrollers, sewing, wearable technology and more. A former director of wearable electronics at Adafruit and senior video producer for MAKE Magazine, Stern has built a huge online audience around her inventive projects and approachable teaching style.
Jay Mankita, traveling from Amherst, Massachusetts, is a teaching artist, musician, lifelong maker and founder of Playful Engineers. Mankita creates hands-on programs where kids become the “Playful Engineers,” experimenting with their own ideas and designing and building artful mechanisms that move, communicate and tell stories.
From robots to pinball, coffee roasting to train rides and more, highlights of Maker Faire Happy Valley include:
- Live project work and demonstrations, including coffee roasting and gravity brewing, glassworking, lapidary and more
- Craig Trader’s Chaos Machine, a massive community-built marble run combining creativity, engineering and a little controlled chaos
- Pinball Joe’s Workshop (Saturday only), where visitors can play, peek inside a pinball machine and learn the basics of repair. The first 500 visitors will receive a free pinball to take home.
- The Bellefonte Historical Railroad Society, bringing $5 train rides and free tours to the Faire
- Doing Good with Wood, where visitors can make their own wooden kazoos and more
- A K’NEX toy designer, sharing the creativity and engineering behind one of the world’s best-known toy brands
- A Chomp Shop-sponsored cardboard fortress-building and battle station, led by Discovery Space & The Rivet.
Admission to the main Faire and parking are free. A free shuttle will be available between Axemann Brewery, Titan Hollow, Titan Energy Park South Lot and Giant Bellefonte.
A special Saturday evening ticketed event at Titan Hollow will extend the experience. Maker Faire After Dark will include a DJ, hands-on making, a cash bar, food for purchase from Gourmet Griddle and “plenty of weird surprises along the way,” according to organizers.
Tickets for the Saturday night event from 6 to 8 p.m. are $12 for general admission or $20 for admission plus one 12-ounce draft cider or mocktail from Titan Hollow.
For the full schedule of Maker Faire Happy Valley events and exhibitors, visit HappyValley.MakerFaire.com.
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