Buncombe County Maker Faire draws families, spotlights hands-on learning

A soldering iron, a stack of wood projects and a room full of curious families gave Buncombe County a clear look at how hands-on learning can move beyond the classroom. At the Mission Health / A-B Tech Conference Center, the sixth annual Asheville Maker Faire brought together woodworkers, repair advocates, robotics teams and museum educators under one roof, turning the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College campus into a showcase for practical skills that can start at home and grow into careers.

Keith Betscher of the Western North Carolina Woodworkers Association said the point is to give young people a chance to make things with their hands instead of only interacting with electronics. That message landed in a space that was built for exactly that kind of exploration. The fair’s booth map included the Western North Carolina Woodworkers Association, Asheville Tool Library, WNC Repair Cafe, Buncombe County Public Library, Asheville Radio Museum, Asheville Museum of Science, IEEE Western NC Section, multiple robotics groups and AB Tech’s learn-to-solder activity.

The event was free and ran from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at 16 Fernihurst Drive in Asheville. Organizers asked visitors to pre-register so they could track attendance, a practical step for an event that depends on how many neighbors, students and parents decide to show up. The format made the fair part family outing, part skills fair and part low-cost gateway into a new hobby or interest.

Asheville Maker Faire is produced by Asheville Makers, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) that says it exists to build and nurture the maker community in Western North Carolina. It is run by an all-volunteer team and funded solely by donations and sponsorship. That structure matters in Buncombe County because it shows how much of the local learning ecosystem depends on civic effort, not just formal schooling. The fair also fit AB-Tech’s role as more than a college campus; it served as a public-facing place where residents could see how tools, repair knowledge and technical education connect.

The Asheville Maker Faire traces its roots to the global Maker Faire movement, which began in 2006 in the San Francisco Bay Area as a project of the editors of Make: magazine. In Asheville, that model has taken on a distinctly local shape, blending craft culture, STEM and repair skills into one weekend event. For Buncombe County, the larger question is whether those sparks of curiosity keep turning into the next generation of makers, technicians and problem-solvers.