We were so excited for “The Ultimate LEGO Experience” @ Brick Festival Live in New York City, Queens @ NYSCI.
If you are custom or not of NYSCI it is a great space fulfilled with cool but serious ‘toys’ for kids that interact and teach all generations.
Unfortunately, space is way too small for events of this caliber because this space is already defined for different purpose. Festival nested in the hallways on the ground level with open access to already fixed and stationary exhibit.
Every station was too small and as result jam packed with kids. Sadly, it was missed by many kids who did not have chance to enter pits filled with bricks. Trying another station turns into another task because moving around was near to impossible. We were trapped in tight long lines for a while.
Another issue was air conditioning as a serious issue. Alarming was to witness few kids started fainting and we had to call for staff. While waiting we shared some water with them.
If event had 2/3 less visitors, amount of staff was ok, but with this amount of visitors staff even in larger amount was not able to respond to the needs.
All this I guess made people to head to restaurant area which also being overcrowded. Positive was that there because of the tables space was protected from being squashed with crowd. Negative on the other hands was that there were no available chairs to sat down, tables if you lucky to get one were dirty and waiting time for chairs was to infinity. I guess that may be a good business for NYSCI but poor performance for festival itself.
I am not sure why organizers did not expand this or simply build a tent on half empty parking lot in front because families that stayed outside together with those whom enter came for ‘The Ultimate LEGO Experience” and instead they hang out on non supervised mini golf and most of them turn back.
The Ultimate LEGO Experience 2017 is just another example: ‘How much New York City lacking spaces for large events?’. Another issue raised by this event is: ‘How many children are left without having a chance to experience ….?’ – and we did not touch a question of overpopulation in the cities.
The Ultimate LEGO Experience 2017 turns to be a failure as “The Ultimate LEGO Experience” and more everything else we did or did not mentioned. We are hoping that future will deliver better dealings with large family events. New York City needs more events like this but more importantly for everyone to note is that we need space to accommodate needs of the residents of New York City.
Thank You NYSCI for good intention making this event possible.