Find your next inspiration on a journey through the eccentric and profound creations of brilliant hackers, inventors, artists, and entrepreneurs at the 14th Annual Maker Faire Bay Area, May 17-19 at the San Mateo County Event Center.

There you can experience the full spectrum of Bay Area ingenuity: robotics and AI, drones, AR/VR, culinary innovation, craft, large scale art, fabrication, and the newest in maker tech. Dive into hundreds of projects and demos; get hands-on with a huge range of tools and materials; and go deep with multiple stages featuring talks and panels by leading edge thinkers and doers.

Maker Faire is a quintessential Bay Area event, where lace makers, machine learning researchers, rocketry enthusiasts, and woodworkers all enjoy mutual respect and admiration. It's for those comfortable in interdisciplinary thinking, and for those who take play seriously. It's where Adam Savage of Mythbusters offers an annual "Sunday Sermon." It's where hardware startups launch. It's where parents and children find things to marvel at and make together.

This year the Dark Gallery features spectacular light projects like David Date's "Myriapoda Robota," a 30-foot mechanical centipede; and "Axis Mundi," a geometric shrine made entirely of LED-lit, laser-cut panels.

Mark Rober, the very clever YouTuber behind the viral video "Glitter Bomb vs. Package Thief," will take to the DIY Content Creator stage. Bob Clagett ("I Like to Make Stuff"), Laura Kampf, Jimmy DiResta are just a few others slated to tell stories, share tips, and connect with fans.

Like robots? This year expect massive robotics competitions including RoboJam (a resurrection of the retired RoboGames), MechWarfare, Solar Robotics, First robotics, DIYRobocars, and the return of Drone Combat to Maker Faire.

Prefer textile arts? Tiny homes? Electronics? Printmaking? Neon tube bending? Gemstone grinding? Model trains? Cosplay? Foundry? Burning Man sculpture? Screenprinting? Small-scale gasification? DIY electric car conversions? It's all at Maker Faire. But more than that, you'll get access to the people behind these projects. Ask questions. Trade ideas. Get inspired, and have a blast!

Maker Faire Bay Area kicks off on Friday, May 17th, with a special preview day—Friday@MakerFaire, from 1pm to 5pm—designed to offer attendees more face-to-face time with makers.

// 1-5pm, Friday May 17th; 10am to 7pm, Saturday May 18th; and 10am to 6 pm, Sunday May 19th; for tickets, go to mfba19.eventbrite.com. For schedules, featured makers, and info, visit makerfaire.com and instagram.com/makerfaire.