CityFest

One of the highlights of the festival was a performance of choreographed fountains made from Mentos dropped into Coke Zero bottles.

A life-size version of the puzzle game app Flow Free let people walk on a game board of tiles that lit up in reaction to their steps.

College student Jonas Lobo showed a giant interactive origami sculpture made from a single sheet of paper, which an electronic arm lifted and dropped to show it open and collapse.

In the New York Hall of Science's DesignLab area, kids could make inflatable sculptures with plastic bags.

A Ford activation tent gave away speakers made from refurbished walkie-talkies.

One of the largest installations was a life-size version of the board game Mouse Trap.

An interactive installation let people slap the ends of tubes cut to different lengths to make different musical notes.

The Austin Bike Zoo brought its butterfly bikes from Texas.

A robot offered free hugs.

When someone sent a text message to the phone number listed on the exhibit by Joe Szuecs, different bells played for different letters in the message.

A public art project by Kim Holleman called "Trailer Park: a Mobile Public Park" had trees and benches inside a metal trailer.

One tent held a boxing match with remote-controlled robots.

The New York University Interactive Telecommunications Program staged a competition for kids where two mechanical arms wrestled using power generated by the kids' physical activities.

Build a Raft Competition

A human bowling activity—in which guests tried to knock over oversize pins from within a caged ball—was among the crowd favorites at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation's A Time for Heroes family festival.

For new sponsor King of Harts, organizers set up an area meant to resemble a camp site in Lake Tahoe.

The booth included a s’mores-making station.

Cinema Makeup School provided a station where guests got temporary tattoos, feather eyelashes, and face paint.

Guests could design their own screen-printed bags to collect takeaways from various activity stations.

A mask-making station engaged the crowd and added a festive pre-Halloween element.

A virtual surfing activation invited guests to experience the seaside activity indoors.

At a sandbox station within a black-light room, kids dug for geodes. Adults cracked them open to show the crystals glowing in the dark.