Photos: The making of Maker Faire

The third annual Maker Faire gets started on Saturday in San Mateo, and it will last all weekend. More than 40,000 people attended the event last year, and that number is expected to grow significantly this year. The event is geared toward a celebration of do-it-yourself culture and "makers," the people who create all manner of amazing objects, devices, machines and crafts from scratch.

On Thursday, the "makers" and a few others were invited to the fairgrounds in San Mateo for a preview of the event, to see how it gets put together and to hear a series of lectures related to the subject of making.

Here, Mauro FF works on setting up "Piano Liberator," an art piece which entails him taking apart pianos and playing them from the inside.