A Supersonic Brick Day @ Concorde
Back in November 2022, after successfully organising and running Bristol Brick Show (GertLUG's biggest show to date), I had a meeting with Adam from the Aerospace Museum - the home of Concorde. In this meeting we talked about putting on a similar show to Bristol Brick Show but I had a little niggle in my brain from some of the feedback we had received at BBS. Can the show be more interactive?
As much as we all know LEGO isn’t just for kids I decided it would be nice to put on a show that had more interactivity for children. This is where Concorde came in. The Concorde hanger was massive, which would allow for more interactive things alongside the more traditional ‘static displays’ that our amazing AFOLs build. As Aerospace is an engineering museum I
suggested it would be good to bring together the aspects of STEM (Science, Technology , Engineering and Mathematics) within our show. LEGO already incorporates everything STEM so we knew this could be a fab combination. From these little ideas and a lot of planning over the next few months, A Supersonic Brick Day was born.
The Zones
Unlike a normal show we split this one up into zones to give the show more of a STEM vibe. We had ‘Wheels In Motion’, 'Architecture Around The World’ and ‘Creative Art’.
Wheels In Motion:
This buzzing zone had so much to see and do. From Battlebots to trains wheezing around and a fantastic classic space monorail - not to mention the chance to build your own plane and car. Cars were then tested on ramps with different textures to see how fast they would go. It was brilliant to see the children running around, excitedly trying out their little creations. We also had maze making (kinda like a marble maze but with LEGO). Some of the public even managed 3D ones!! The remote control and 4x4 cars went down really well with adults and children alike.
Architecture Through Time:
Within this zone we had so much architecture. From pirates and castles to a mine scene and a long street filled with super heroes and many other characters. There was also some amazing small scale buildings including a cinema that even smelt like popcorn. Children and adults were invited to sit down and build any type of building they could think of with a vast amount of loose LEGO bricks.
Creative Art:
This was a fantastic display of how LEGO can be used in art form. From mosaics and pictures on easels along one wall to some great massive animal sculptors. We had Banksy’s recreated in LEGO and a build area where the public could build their own little mosaic for displaying at the show. There was a 'Guess the Disney film character' game, which was harder then it looked! We also had a fantastic LEGO garden where people were encouraged to build a flower and add it to the display. This was so beautiful by the end of the show that we really didn’t want to take it down!
Dotted around the show we also had some amazing LEGO built games. You may have come across the skittles, LEGO’s original football and basket ball games and a number of other more complicated brick built games with instructions to keep any LEGO enthusiast entertained.
On top of all this we also had a big build area with graffiti walls and building tables around the hall. It was so great to see the public building together to make a gigantic castle, amongst many other creations, over the course of the day.
If you were lucky as you were walking around you may have spotted some amazing planes and space displays too.
Over all this was one of the hardest but most rewarding events to have organised. The feedback we have received has been amazing and we can’t wait to do it all again next year (put July 20th in your diaries for now!). There were just over 2000 members of the public that came along and we made a fantastic £12,500 for the Bristol Aero Collection Trust (the charity behind the museum).
A very big thank you to everyone involved and to everyone who came along for the day.
