Festival of Stuff: Stratford Extravaganza 2025

Join us for our large-scale, drop-in and com­pletely free Fest­iv­al ded­ic­ated to all things mater­i­als and mak­ing at the Insti­tute of Mak­ing Stratford! 

From cap­tiv­at­ing demon­stra­tions and excit­ing hands-on mak­ing activ­it­ies, to live music and unortho­dox culin­ary stalls, togeth­er we’ll explore the sheer joy of stuff. 

In hon­our of our new breezy space on the Queen Eliza­beth Olympic Park, we’re invest­ig­at­ing wind like nev­er before. Try your hand at a wide range of blustery activ­it­ies: from pan­pipes to pro­pellers and Bernoulli bal­loons to hot air bal­loons. Fuel a Stirl­ing engine with steam, strut a ​‘wind-o-graphy’ cat­walk and mar­vel at our elec­tric hov­er­craft track. 

The day will take in a flurry of spe­cial­ist mak­ing prac­tices, breath­ing life into rope-mak­ing, bas­ketry, para­chute stitch­ing, enzymat­ic plastic recyc­ling and screen­print­ing. Cook up a storm with tasty torched treats, then dip into our pizza dough pad­dling pool and mar­vel at the Mater­i­als Library.

Save the date in your diary, and sign up to our mail­ing list to receive Fest­iv­al updates and news.

Excited to to see behind-the-scenes Fest­iv­al pre­par­a­tions? Keep an eye on our Ins­tagram.

Click here for dir­ec­tions to our Strat­ford space.

The Insti­tute of Mak­ing is an inter­dis­cip­lin­ary research organ­isa­tion, with a Mater­i­als Lib­rary and multi-mater­i­al work­shop spaces. Our aim is to provide all those inter­ested in the made world with a cre­at­ive home in which to con­tem­plate all aspects of mater­i­als and their rela­tion­ship to making.

Fest­iv­al of Stuff events are free and open to all!

Every­one is wel­come in our spaces for our Fest­iv­al of Stuff day event and mas­ter­classes, and we strive to make all of our pro­cesses accessible.

Our fest­iv­al is expec­ted to be loud and busy through­out the day, but it is gen­er­ally quieter between 1pm — 2pm. If a noisy, crowded atmo­sphere will make your day dif­fi­cult or unen­joy­able, please get in touch with us in advance so that we can help you have the best exper­i­ence. We can arrange altern­at­ives for those who are unable to queue for longer peri­ods of time, help you to nav­ig­ate to quieter spaces and provide you with free earplugs.

Please mes­sage us if you have any ques­tions, or require­ments, or need assist­ance using our plat­forms or events. We’ll be happy to help: events@​instituteofmaking.​org.​uk.

We look for­ward to see­ing you soon!