Hello and happy new 2014 year to all!

I had the pleasure to attend BrickFair in Virginia (USA) last year. For those that don't know, BrickFair is hosted 4 times a year in Alabama, New Hampshire, Virginia, New Jersey, More information is available on the official website.

With Alabama comming up in January 11th and 12th I want to give a heads-up to anybody who may not be aware. Sadly, my MOCs aren't ready yet so I will just be a visitor to this one. Hopefully by Virginia I will be ready to be an exhibitor. Note that there is no deadline to register for an exhibitor, so if you plan to go and want to show off your MOCs, go right ahead!

NEXT EVENT

May 10th & May 11th, 2014

11:00am - 4:00pm

Radisson Hotel Manchester

Radisson

700 Elm Street

Manchester, NH 03101

Door entrance: $9

Parking is listed as: $10.00

Sunday street parking is free. Event validation for $5 parking.

If you need more information, check out the FAQ section on the event website.

Hope to see you all there!

Note: I am not affiliated with the event in any way, just spreading the information.

Edited January 14, 201411 yr by bgalakazam

I've got a long wait ahead of me -- but I'm definitely planning to attend the New Jersey fair later in the year. Looking forward to it!

Thanks for sharing the great information about brickfair!

I went to BrickFair VA in 2011, but missed the last two years in a row. What is the cost again? I know VA is in August...

I went to BrickFair VA in 2011, but missed the last two years in a row. What is the cost again? I know VA is in August...

This year (2014) Brickfair Virginia is August 2nd and 3rd (for the general public) at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly with a ticket price of $12 at the door. Hours are 11 to 4 each day.

For exhibitors (or just people who want the whole AFOL 9 bricks, as it were) the convention runs from July 30th to the 3rd with a registration cost of $67 (register before before July 12th to get a $15 discount). The official AFOL schedule hasn't been announced yet, but during the extra days before the public event there's usually presentations from Official Reps, regional LUGs, or third party vendors with something special they want to show off. In addition there are building contests (blind build, speed build, boat race, etc.) and traditional games (bingo, poker, Settler's of Cataan, etc.) with Lego Kits as prizes. At previous events there have also been carnival style attractions like "Go Fish", a game where one tries to toss ping pong balls into tiny fishbowls full of loose Lego - for every ball that goes in, you wind the parts in the jar. At BrickFair New England, they even had an inflatable bouncy castle to keep the little kids entertained while the Adults in the crowd caught a moment's rest.

The AFOL convention registration also allows you to bring as many MOCs to the show as you like and automatically enters new, original works into various prize categories for their "Brickees" They have categories like "Most Amusing" "Best Use of Color" "Should be a Kit" etc. and winners get a brick-built trophy for the effort.

I've not been to the Virginia show (yet, maybe one of these days) but I just got back from BrickFair New England and I had a blast. I met some great people, saw some really impressive MOCs, had a chance to sit down with Jamie Beard (the designer of the Emerald Night and the Parisian Cafe) as well Tim Courtney (or Lego Cuusoo, now Lego Ideas), won more Lego than my registration fee would have purchased if I'd just bought the stuff outright, and took home the Public Favorite Best in Show Brickee (my second win in that category )

I was a cautious skeptic before attending my first convention, but honestly, it's a lot of fun and well worth the price of admission. If you live within reasonable driving distance to a show, I strongly suggest checking one out. And even if you don't feel like showing off your MOCs, the AFOL "pre-convention" convention is a wonderful way to get more involved in the AFOL community face-to-face.

Edited May 15, 201410 yr by ShaydDeGrai

I thought I would just chime in to offer my perspective on BrickFair, having attended and exhibited at my first at NH this year.

It was great!

One of the biggest surprises for me were the amount of bricks I received as part of my registration. Door prizes, bingo, contests, the goodie bag, parts drafts, etc. Add in the opportunity to hear from Jamie Berard, Tim Courtney, Kevin Hinkle, and many other AFOL exhibitors, and it was an exceptionally fantastic value. The private convention is really worth the extra cost --and it's a much bigger part of the weekend than the public hours.

It was also quite inspiring to see others' work and get the benefit of their ideas and techniques. From the mosaics, to castle, to LOTR (including ShaydDeGrai's unbelievable, winning build), to space, etc., just a ton of inspired MOCs and friendly people. Most also were quite tolerant of my 10-year-old son, who joined me for the second part of the weekend and was eager for opportunities to "help" out. And the organizers were very good: to the point, reasonable in all aspects, and good communication for n00bs like me. I really appreciate all the work Todd and his crew put in.

I definitely intend to be at next year's NH event, and may try to venture to Virginia at some point. That show is supposed to be quite the contrast in scale with the small NH event.

Go, if you can!

Offering my thoughts, my family of four (2AFOLs and 2TFOLs) have been regulars at Brickfair VA for five years now. It's always fun, lots to do, many friends to see, tons of awesome MOCs, large collaborations, train clubs, etc......You get the idea. This is the first year it will be a five day event (with 2 public days). I highly recommend attending if you can!

It's about time we finally got some BrickFair discussion on here. The New England event was fantastic this year, and BrickFair Alabama was pretty great too. I'll also be at the big one in Virginia, running the Mini Con layout, and some games, and a seminar, and whatever else comes up.

A few corrections, though, from what's been said so far (I am a stickler for accuracy, a frequent BrickFair volunteer, and a recovering spelling dork):

- The Moonbounce is a recurring part of BrickFair. BrickFair bought their own "bouncy house" printed with minifig designs last year and debuted it at BrickFair Alabama 2014.

- Go Fish was new for BrickFair New England 2014. I don't know if it's going to be at BrickFair Virginia (that one tends to be more full just with MOCs), but I'd expect it to become a regular part of the smaller events (which are still decently-sized, with well over 100 registered attendees each).

- MOCs aren't entered into prize categories - you can register a MOC under whichever theme you'd like to display it under, and trophy nominators (usually theme leaders in Virginia and designated volunteers elsewhere, since VA is the only BF event where trophy categories are roughly the same as themes) will then nominate a few of their favorites for a particular trophy - and can pick them from any category, so a military-themed mosaic is still eligible for "Best Mosaic" even if it was registered and displayed in the "Military" theme. This can result in counter-intuitive nominations (say, a train engine not impressing the Town/Train coordinators, but being nominated for "Best Ground Vehicle" instead, or the semi-infamous argument about whether the "Bionicle" category should nominate models that feel like Bionicle but are not actually made from Bionicle parts). From the nominations, attendees vote on the winners.

- The convention in VA starts on Wednesday this year, but to get the full experience at any BrickFair event, you should get there the day before and join us for the Early Bird Dinner. You can go as public for just Saturday and Sunday, but expect attendees to mock you for missing everything.

- The big catch with kids in VA is that there is a minimum age for kids registering (mostly to keep VA from growing to an unmanageable size).

Enough nitpicking, here's an unreasonable quantity of photos from the most recent three events:

BrickFair Virginia 2013: https://www.flickr.c...57635266455456/

BrickFair Alabama 2014: https://www.flickr.c...57639780839564/

BrickFair New England 2014: https://www.flickr.c...57644658603741/