BATON ROUGE – Young LEGO enthusiasts are invited to test their creativity and skills in the seventh annual LEGO Building Extravaganza competition.
The event will take place during the Greater Baton Rouge State Fair on Saturday, Oct. 26 starting at 2 p.m.
Participants will be divided into two groups for the competition: ages 7-10 and 11-13.
Each child will be assigned a position at a table and given a random pile of bricks. When the competition starts, the participants will have 45 minutes to build a creation using the bricks they received. Participants won’t be allowed to trade or exchange the bricks they have for others.
“We have kids that come and build airplanes, rocket ships, three-wheeled cars — whatever they have, they can come up with something,” Cliff Barton, fair chairman, said. “It’s very creative what they can do.”
When the time for building is up, participants must step away from the table and cannot touch their creation again. Community members who serve as the competition’s judges then examine each creation and score it based on creativity, appearance, and degree of difficulty.
The judges are also allowed to walk around during the creation time and speak to the young builders about what they are doing, just like in some cooking contest shows, Barton explained.
“The back stories for what these kids come up with is just awesome!” he said.
At the end of the scoring, prizes are awarded to the winners. If there’s a tie, an additional person will judge the tied creations to choose the winner.
At last year’s fair, there were around 40 participants, with some having to be turned away due to the lack of space and materials. This time, Barton hopes to have 60 participants.
This year’s event is the first that has had sponsors, and because of their generosity, Barton was able to purchase more LEGOs and tables for this year’s competition. He and his wife purchase the LEGOs in bulk, clean them and store them away for the next year’s competition.
After the competition, the LEGO creations are disassembled for the materials to be stored for use next year.
Barton invites families to visit the fair and participate in the competition and is looking forward to a larger event than ever before.
Download the Unfiltered with Kiran app from the Apple App Store and Google Play to stay updated on the latest news across the Capital area.
Help support UWK and their mission to continue providing you “The News You Deserve. Unfiltered.” Sign up to become a monthly patron via Patreon.
