On Saturday, April 18, Gulf Coast MakerCon 2026 comes to life at the Yuengling Draft Haus & Kitchen at 11109 N 30th St, Tampa, FL 33612.*
Gulf Coast MakerCon is Tampa Bay’s oldest and longest running maker festival, an immersive Festival of Art and Invention, celebrating the DIY Innovative Spirit since 2012! The event annually showcases everything from arts to automation, iron to ink music to mechanics! Join us to share what you make, or get inspired by what others make. Browse and buy in our arts, crafts and innovative products booths, enjoy panel presentations by industry experts in aerospace, artificial intelligence, arts, entertainment, and media, and enter to win a fun variety of raffles and silent auction items.
GCMC guests can also enjoy Combat @ MakerCon, made possible with support from Build Fight Fun and PLUGHITZ Live, with over 30 lightweight fighting robots vying for top honors and the Rusty Wrench Award. Kids (and adults!) can go wild in our Deconstruction Zone, sponsored by eSmart Recycling, where you can dismantle electronics and learn about them in the process.
New This Year
Our STEAM Room Panel talks are new this year, bringing together five fabulous speakers:
- Tony Selvaggio of Esmart Recycling, a long time Gulf Coast MakerCon partner and host of our popular Deconstruction Zone
- Amanda Roark, Tech Transfer and STEM Program Manager for SOFWERX, will share some industry insights
- Nelson Perez, of Vodka Bacon Studios, will share an insider look at his amazing three dimensional art
- Ora Tanner, founder of Black Unicorn Education, will give you a whole fresh take on Artificial Intelligence
- John Karas, a semi-retired Human Space Programs engineer with Lockheed-Martin, will share some insights on the Artemis project and more.
Be the Hamster!
This year we’re also delighted to welcome Joe Donoughe, of Be the Hamster!
Joe loves Rube Goldberg-style machines and human powered devices, and thus was born – the Human Hamster wheel, where you can get your steps in while also making your own snow cone to refresh with after your work out. Check out the video below to see it in action, visit the website link to learn more about Joe, and come out to MakerCon on Saturday to give it a try for yourself!
Exhibitors, Vendors and Activities
We’ve got some old favorites joining us again this year – like Itimpi Bookstore , Creative Cutout, Jungle Robotics, and our friends at Tampa Bay Community Network, and some new ones, like Two Wolves Forge, Ops Box, Susie Made This and Hull & Bay Cocktail Co, among others. Browse and buy everything from books, to jewelry, hand forged knives to 3D printed items, and sample some unique handcrafted mocktails, build your own travel adventure with Armadillo Travel and rock out with Rock Band, with Forge Social Gaming Center.
You can meet the Makers of Makers, with our friends from Tampa Hackspace , and Pasco County Libraries Makerspaces showcasing some of the awesome opportunities they offer for you to access tools and resources for learning a craft or refining maker skills.
And of course AMROC Fab Lab will be in the house, with the Sew Chill sewists leave the AMRoC Sewing Center to show and tell and sell some of their great handmade textile and other craft items, from totes to rope bowls and candles! You can also fly drones with AMRoC Drone Specialist Clinton Millsap,
You can see all our great exhibitors and programs to date on our Exhibitor page.
Raffle Prizes and Silent Auction
We’ve also got a fabulous collection of raffle and silent auction items, thanks to donors like Caire Insurance – also a major sponsor of Gulf Coast MakerCon this year – the Lightning, Visit Tampa Bay, Sprouts, Trader Joe’s, Coastal Film Lab, Armadillo Travel Adventures and many others.
You can get advance raffle tickets and STEAM Room Panel talks passes, with your free general admission tickets HERE!
Keep your eyes on our socials for more event updates through Saturday, and join us at Yuengling Draft Haus & Kitchen from 10 am to 6 pm to get inspired, and enjoy everything MakerCon has to offer!
All event proceeds benefit Foundation for Community Driven Innovation’s capacity building programs at our AMRoC Fab Lab facility.
*Please note: Due to construction on 30th Street, there is no southbound access to the Yuengling Draft Haus & Kitchen. Please use Busch Blvd, and take 30th Street North from there for easiest.