Brick Fest LIVE San Diego

I am finally getting to write a description of what it was like at Brick Fest LIVE San Diego, Saturday and Sunday, Nov 20-21.  Thanksgiving and friends delayed me, but fun was had by all at both the Lego show and Thanksgiving.  I have to temper this description with the fact that I had to stay with my display for most of the time. 

It was an interesting two days, given the environment we are now living in.  This was also the first Brick Fest LIVE I have been to.  The building was at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, north of San Diego proper.  There was a lot of open space as the picture shows.  Tickets were sold in time slots, mostly to control the number of people in the building at any one time.

 

 

There was a live show, three times a day.  A Brick Fest Live person warmed the crowd up and then Lego Masters participants  Manny & Nestor and Bryan & Lauren  each did 20 mins Q&A.  The Q&A was separated by a local magician. We were directly across from the stage and the comment on the Web Site that it would loud was very true.  Saw several young children with ear protection.

The crowd was actually very good.  I had attended a one day show in Omaha in July.  The Omaha show was in a smaller building, which made the crowd look larger.  The live show seating area was 80% full for most of the shows.  We had a steady stream of visitors from opening to about 4PM on both days. 

 

One of the highlights of Brick Fest LIVE is the life size models they have.  Here are a few.

They had several build tables.  One was just a collection of basic bricks in all colors.  People would build small MOCs and then several people combined to build a few large ones.  Event staff would come through occasionally and take things apart.  Fairly sure I saw I few smaller MOCs go out the door.  

Then they had one center table with a white castle and four surrounding tables of all white parts.  People would build additions to the castle and place them on the center table.  On Sunday there was an unplanned contest to see who could build the tallest spire.

 

  

The Brick Fest LIVE people had the main store, which was selling new sets.  There were other vendors selling Mini Figures, old Lego Sets and accessories.  The standard baseball hat with brick connectors was very popular.  

The MOC displays were in three areas.  San Diego LUG had several smaller displays and some running trains.  No train layout like you would see at other Lego conventions.  One of the most interesting was a Boy Scout troop that modeled a Boy Scout Summer Camp.  This was a very large display.  My youngest son was there on one day and having been an Eagle Scout and OA member, he noticed that the bathrooms were missing. 

 

This was next to a large Civil War battle scene.

 

 

 

The most interesting display was a pirate ship.  Someone had spent the early days of the pandemic building MOCs and the ship was the main result.  They said they had just been at Brick Fest LIVE Pasadena and were going to Colorado Springs in December.

 

 

 

Here is a collection of MOCs and other large displays.

 

It was a rewarding experience.  I always enjoy talking with people about how I build, the parts I use and what I am trying to model and how.  It is also interesting to receive feedback on whether or not I have acheived the effect I was aiming for.

Finally a short video of what I had there.