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Throughout the weekend, LEGO fans of all ages gathered at the BrickFest live event in the exhibit hall at the Grayslake County Fairgrounds and Event Center.
An estimated 4,000 people attended the two-day event, according to Gilbert Delgado, venue manager for Brick Fest Live.
It’s a national, year-round tour that promotes “parents building with their kids,” Delgado said. “It opens their imagination.
“A lot of people meet here and become friends just because they have similar interests,” he added.
Popular building trends include holiday-themed LEGO sets.
“Flowers are really popular right now,” Delgado said. “All different flowers. They have a Valentine’s Day succulent collection, all kinds of roses. It’s really popular.”
He said more than a million bricks were on display at the Grayslake show.
Attractions include a giant brick pit where kids can flap their arms to make Lego angels. Builders can build Pinewood Derby-style cars and have their creations raced competitively on the track.
There is also an architectural area displaying famous monuments. This includes the interactive Floorsaic mosaic with 116,352 tiles.
“The kids, their talent amazes me a lot of the time,” Delgado said. “You’ll see them building Lego towers…the architects and engineers of the future.”
People took photos of oversized Lego structures, including a Cyclops and the mythical multi-headed Hydra.
Nestor Garcia, a Lego Master from Pennsylvania, is a celebrity in the Lego community and appeared on the first season of Fox’s “Lego Masters.”
Garcia said LEGO bricks can instill the educational principles of STEM, or STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics).
“It’s very important because when they start at a young age, they develop the habit of doing some very constructive and very positive things in life,” he said. “Then they grow into teenagers, then adults, and finally engineers.
“Lego helps develop their brains, use their skills and inspire them to become a better person,” Garcia said.
The family of Mel and Maria Djurdjevic of Hoffman Estates contributed to the Lego wall with Kris, 7, Aleks, 11, and Luka, 12.
Maria Djurdjevic, a fourth-grade educator in Des Plaines, said Lego teaches “spatial awareness, everything, using their art and imagination.”
“My room is basically a Lego trap. It’s everywhere, everywhere,” Luca said.
Asked if Lego bricks had ever been packed into a vacuum cleaner, his mother laughed and said: “Oh, yes, a lot of times, and[I’ve]stepped on a lot of Lego bricks.”
Liam Carney, 6, from Gurnee, spent a considerable amount of time in the giant circular brick pit.
Liam’s family, parents Joe and Brandi, and sister Emma, 17, were present.
“I’ve been obsessed with Lego since I was a kid,” Emma Carney said. “In fact, I probably have three whole boxes of Lego that I’ve collected over the years.”
Her father said she was “still fascinated”.
“I am,” she agreed. “Right now I’m obsessed with flower sets. I love building succulents, roses, and I love architecture, so those are some of the sets I want to get.
“I would love to build the Parthenon or the Colosseum,” Emma Carney continued. “I’m a STEM kid. I actually plan on majoring in biology, so I love the fact that you can use Legos to model almost anything.”
Brandy Carney says, “What I love about LEGO is that they can come into their own space and be incredibly creative. I definitely advocate trying to find different styles of LEGO bricks that they like .
“We absolutely love it,” she said.
Check out other Brick Fest Live tour locations: https://www.brickfestlive.com/bfl-home55472561.
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