photo by: Mike Yoder

Joanna Bonee, Lawrence, reacts as her daughter Isabel, 7, works on coding a puzzle game in the Digital Lab at the Confabularryum event Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014, at Southwest Junior High School. At left is Isabel's brother Asher, 3. Activities included hat making, pinewood car making and racing, design workshops and an air guitar workshop.

ConfabuLarryum, Lawrence’s festival of making and creativity, encourages kids and adults alike to dream big.

It’s fitting, then, to see this year’s third annual festival marketed as “bigger and better than ever.” The third annual event, once again hosted by Lawrence Public Schools and Callahan Creek, returns to Lawrence Aug. 13 at a larger venue, with more parking areas and activities in the lineup, than years past.

More than 5,000 children, parents, educators and other innovators are expected to attend ConfabuLarryum 2016, slated for 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Lawrence Free State High School, 4700 Overland Drive. That’s quite a jump from just two years ago, when the fledgling festival attracted somewhere around 1,500 people — exceeding organizers’ attendance hopes fourfold — to Southwest Middle School.

“It evolved out of a coffee shop conversation between three people saying, ‘You know, we need to promote creativity in the community,'” recalls Jerri Kemble, the school district’s assistant superintendent of innovation and technology. “‘And how can we give back to the community and have something where everyone can participate?'”

This year’s ConfabuLarryum, as in previous iterations, invites visitors to take a “hands-on” approach to creativity and the ongoing maker movement, Kemble says. Among the many (free) attractions: arts and crafts, kids’ coding classes, drones, 3-D printing and the ever-popular “Nerdy Derby.”

In the spirit of accessibility, organizers are also offering a free shuttle service to the venue from the Boys and Girls Club at 1520 Haskell Avenue and the Lied Center parking lot, 1600 Stewart Drive, throughout the day. A shuttle schedule will be available on the ConfabuLarryum Facebook page before the festival.

ConfabuLarryum makes a point of being kid-friendly, but, Kemble stresses, there’s something for everyone. New additions to the festival this year include a health and wellness zone (in addition to designated areas for arts and crafts, science and technology), a Stomp Rockets launching with Science City, and adoptable pets (and a chance for kids to create toys for shelter animals) from the Lawrence Humane Society.

For a full schedule of festival events, check out ConfabuLarryum on Facebook.

In education, there’s quite a bit of research and literature devoted to what Kemble and others in her field call the “Four Cs” — communication, creativity collaboration and critical thinking. But even those of us well beyond our school years can benefit from a little imagination and out-of-the-box problem solving, Kemble says.

“Those are the skills you need in the 21st century. It doesn’t matter what career path you’re on or what career you’re doing,” she says. “Those skills will serve you well.”