A mix of culture and business and science and art.
I didn't start these meetups to start a meetup. I wanted to have this big event, but I didn't have any community yet. So we started hosting meetups. And the meetups took on a mind of their own. It led to the nonprofit. It expanded. Which brought us here.
2026 is the focused proof of concept. One anchor venue. One stage. 300 people. Halloween weekend -- Friday Oct 30 through Sunday Nov 1. Everything we know how to do, distilled into two days. We run the full week in 2027.
When we sat down to plan this festival, something shifted. We'd been thinking about the usual AI conference crowd. But then one of our leads said something that changed everything:
“There is a latent need. I need to understand. I need to be part of and have a voice in what's happening to us.”— Loki Jorgenson, MAC Day Track Lead
Most AI conversations want you to pick a side. Boosters or doomers. All in or all out. We're not doing that. We walk forward with both hands full — critique in one hand, curiosity in the other.
This isn't just for AI professionals. It's for teachers who can't normally attend conferences, for doctors wondering what AI means for their practice, for citizens who want a voice in policy decisions. A festival welcomes people in where a conference might not.
