Open Sauce is a California festival that brings together crazy inventors, makers of every sort, and 150 nerdy YouTubers for a weekend of hands-on exhibits, live demos, and community connection. Founded by YouTuber William Osman, the event is like a science fair for grown-ups, with over 500 projects on display, from combat robotics to 3D printed musical instruments.
The YouTube element sets Open Sauce apart from other festivals. YouTube creators were invited to host panels and presentations on a number of topics, like 3D printing, science education, animation, prototyping inventions, rocketry, and much more. They also shared strategies for becoming a successful YouTuber. When they weren’t on the stage, fan favorite creators could be spotted touring the exhibits and giving autographs. Presentations were live-streamed for a Virtual Open Sauce experience and recorded for on-demand playback through Sauce+, a streaming service dedicated to Open Sauce creators.
I had a chance to sit down with founder William Osman, a well known YouTuber and engineer to ask him why he started the festival. “I did it for the community,” he said, “YouTube in the early days was a bunch of people who had a weird hobby, who would get together and collaborate making videos.”
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He told me he wanted to bring back that earlier sense of community, and give nerds like himself a place where everyone could show up, hang out, and share their projects and “unhinged inventions.” He also said that Open Sauce is a place for makers to go crazy with their projects without worrying about how polished and professional the results might be. Osman feels that Open Source shows people, especially kids, that science and engineering are accessible and fun.