After my first visit to Electromagnetic Field Camp in 2016 I've been eagerly awaiting it's return in 2018. EMF Camp is a long weekend camping festival dedicated to technology and the arts, with workshops, talks, activities and demonstrations for the technically minded.
This year's event was held at one of the fields of Eastnor Castle. about 2 1/2 hours drive from where I am. This year I volunteered to run a laser tag events for 5, one hour sessions over the weekend using the 3D printed lasertag guns I've documented over the years on this blog.
To properly stage such an event I needed some inflatable barriers. These are readily available from China but I didn't want to spend any cash. Fortunately my good friend Steve Bull at Operation Lasertag was able to lend me about £2000 worth of them for the weekend. Thanks Steve!
We arrived at around 11am on the Friday.
And once through security (They were a professional event security company. They looked really bored. I asked them if this was the easiest gig they had ever done: "We've had more disruptive people at other events.....") we were in to set up the tent. Matthew had a great time bashing the tent pegs.
The event is laid out as a series of marquees in which talks, up to an hour in length, are regularly held. The marquees vary in size and an online system of talk interest registration allows the organisers to allocate the largest tents to the most popular talks.
EMF camp has been compared by some to the UK version of Burning Man. However this is a link they shy away from. EMF camp is a much more educational event with the majority of activities aimed at learning something, be it a workshop or a talk. Also, children are somewhat rare at BM, where at EMF camp they go from babes in arms upwards.
As a result of this demographic, the lasertag was most definitely busy. With English speaking parents turning up with their native Belgian or Dutch speaking kids to translate my safety briefings. It really was enjoyable, though somewhat tiring. Also, as a result of the set up and tear down times I did not get to attend as many talks as I would have liked. Nevertheless, it was great.
Andy brought along a 3D camera so we could record one of the games.
Visit Tagbits to see the full range of tagger products described in this blog.
I had some welcome help from Joshua, Keiran, Andy and Carter to run these events. It was agreed that whoever was running the event should wear the 'Stahlhelm' with goggles to indicate them as the administrator. Most of us were sensible enough to avoid being photographed, except Keiran.
There were many great activities and things to see over the weekend:
An introduction to blacksmithing. I did this last time in 2016 and it was great:
A homemade organ:
A free retro arcade. Josh and Carter do Dance, Dance Revolution. I took on Keiran. He is 17, I am 53. I more than doubled his score...
There were various bots wandering around. This one seemed to have problems with it's LCD face. Which made it somewhat creepy:
And there were some balloon battle bots being tested. These were really popular with the kids. Each robot has a pin and a balloon on it.
X Robots brought Mantis along.
By day, a circle of fans is not compelling:
But by night they produce a fire tornado:
One of the new attractions was the 'Null Sector'. A set of shipping containers arranged in a circle with various attractions in each one. From arcade machines for the kids to a rave and a bar for the adults.
The disco was combined with a pyrotechnic system so that punters could discharge propane (apparently they went through 200kg over the weekend) by pressing buttons on a panel.
An indie film was being recorded at the same time. They asked if they could use my 3D printed lasertag guns for this scene. You can see them staggering along from 00:09 to 00:012:
Overall, an amazing weekend. The next picture sums it up. A map is made of the field and attendees are encouraged to mark their presence with a tag on the end of a piece of string. And this is only one half of the field.
