Brick by brick

Thousands of LEGO-loving people gather in northern Virginia each August for BrickFair, the nation’s largest LEGO festival. The event, sponsored by a group known as Adult Fans of LEGO, offers workshops on how to make giant castle walls, for instance, or how to incorporate rock formations, foliage, and waterways in your LEGO landscapes.

You can also attend a robot sumo wrestling competition, when computerized LEGO robots grapple in the ring; watch stop-motion animated LEGO films; or play LEGO bingo. Close to 1,000 exhibitors display their elaborate creations: train layouts, tall buildings, towns, futuristic battle scenes, and space displays, all made out of the small plastic bricks. This year, you’ll even see a Boeing 777 airplane that’s built with 110,000 LEGOs, measures 9 1/2 feet long, and has operational navigation, beacon warning, runway, landing, and cabin lights.