Subject:
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Review of the Jack Frost Festival in Charlottetown PEI on Feb 17-18
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.org.ca.novalug, lugnet.loc.ca
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Date:
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Tue, 20 Feb 2007 18:55:32 GMT
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Viewed:
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2546 times
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Greetings to all!
I asked my wife Karen to write the article for me so it will be easier for
everyone to understand! ;~D So here it is:
This was the third year for the Jack Frost Festival at Charlottetown. It's a
huge event which draws thousands of people from all over the Maritimes -- even a
potato farmer all the way from Houlton, Maine! The Festival was originally
conceived to take place outdoors, but there was such disastrous weather in 2006
that the organizers decided to have indoor activities as well this year -- just
in case. Despite the perfect cold and dry weather outdoors, Lego Town held its
own in style!
Word of Lego Town was spreading quickly around the town (no pun intended). One
woman who arrived late on Saturday afternoon admitted with great embarassment to
being "the only mother in Charlottetown" who hadn't brought her children to Lego
Town! When we arrived at the Confederation Mall at the Sunday 10:00 am opening
time, numerous families were already gathered around the many tables in the Food
Court, happily building with Lego, oblivious to anything else but their building
(remind you of anyone you know?) and possibly their immediate table companions.
As soon as we started up the Arlen's train layout and the Jean-Marc's Great Ball
Contraption (GBC), crowds gathered around to admire Lego in motion.
We have heard so many comments about how wonderful it was to see families
playing together. You can see the photos, but imagine an entire Food Court - 50
tables or so - covered with Legos and the chairs filled with kids of all ages.
One lady commented that she was surprised at how quiet so many children could
be! The mall had organized a Lego contest the week before, with local children
entering their creations. The winners' entries were on display and children
continued to add their new creations throughout the weekend. The display table
eventually filled up, so a spontaneous extension began on the raised stage in
the middle of the court. By the time we left the stage was ringed with Lego
creations!
We were peppered with questions about all things Lego, both in English and
French. We gave explanations about TLC, LUGNET, NovaLUG, BrickLink, Peeron,
AFOLs, MOCs, NXT, Mindstorms, trains and much more. We realized that a lot of
people don't know that they can buy Lego anywhere but in local stores. These
were just some of the questions we fielded:
1) Are you from Denmark?
2) Do you work for Lego?
3) Do you own all this stuff?
4) Can I buy the GBC?
5) What do I have to do to work for The Lego Company one day? (JM said he'd
like to know, too!)
6) How can a telephone make a robot move? (Sorry you weren't there, Owen!)
We displayed a large-scale dump truck built by Richard Hubley of Pleasantville
(just outside of Bridgewater). This was a good thing because some men passing
through finally understood that Lego is really relevant after all!
Jean-Marc was really in his element(s), so to speak. He didn't stop talking the
entire day - he didn't even stop to eat! In addition to his demonstrations, he
gave two magic shows each day, and the children were very attentive and all
hoped to find the right key to open the magic lock and take home the Lego prize.
One of the funniest sights during the shows was Jean-Marc standing in front of
the backdrop - a sign from TLC that read "How Tall are You in Lego Bricks?"
The robots were a great hit! People enjoyed taking the controls and trying out
the NXT and RCX robots. Sometimes all the robots were on centre stage at the
same time. The blue Scout was a crowd pleaser as it repetitively bumped into
people and backed up. We received numerous requests from young people to try
Owen's cell phone controlled NXT bot. One father agreed that it was the first
time he had seen a useful application for a cell phone. We really enjoyed
interacting with so many children and young adults - the "NXT generation" are
quick to catch on to the technology and a some understand it even better than we
do! It was wonderful to be able to open some young minds to the pleasure of
robotics through Lego.
We heard wonderful stories about people's experiences with Lego and heard a lot
of people confess about the boxes of Lego stored in their attics from childhood
days. We heard about a house designed in Lego years ago (Modulex?) before being
built, and we even met a few people who never lived through the Dark Ages - they
just never stopped playing! There were quite a few visitors from Moncton, and a
few of them had even heard about "some guy with a huge Lego collection"
(Legosam?). One of our favourite stories was from a woman whose brother lives
in Wales and travels all over the world. He said that everywhere he goes, he
finds Lego pieces, including one he found in a taxi during his latest trip to
Paris. "Lego is taking over the world," he is said to have exclaimed. Let's
hope so!
The staff from the Mall were so supportive and easy to work with that it was a
real pleasure to participate in this event. A cheerful security guard, Danny,
was posted in front of the displays to keep little hands at bay -- and even
reload the GBC from time to time. We came home with a great gift - a banner
(92" x 22") that says "Welcome to Lego Town" that can be used for future shows.
If all goes well we will return to Charlottetown for next year's Festival and we
hope that more NovaLUGers will participate!
For a few picture of the event, visit my Brickshelf folder after moderation:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=235498
Enjoy!
Jean-Marc
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