Lego festival draws thousands for first annual Brick Palooza in Santa Rosa

Thousands of Lego fans converged on Santa Rosa for the first Brick Palooza festival, where large brick castles and ships, a medieval village and even a 20-foot-long city paid homage to the tiny, plastic toy.

Sunday’s event was launched by Caleb Raff, owner of Brick Hutt in Santa Rosa, with help from volunteers and loyal customers. It featured exhibits of Lego art, play areas, an interactive modular castle project and a Lego cinema complete with popcorn and screenings of “The Lego Movie” and “Beyond the Brick: A Lego Brickumentary.”

“We put on a lot of small events around the county,” Raff said. “We also go to a lot of the Lego shows. ... This is what we do.”

The event, held at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building, attracted about 2,000 Lego fans within its first 90 minutes. Raff expected to double that by the end of the day. Admission was $12 at the door and free for kids 4 and under.

To help launch the festival, Raff donated 1,400 tickets to local schools, which were able to sell the tickets and keep the proceeds. The donated tickets raised about $10,000 for schools, he said.

Launched around 1930 by Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen, the Lego company remains one of the oldest family-owned toy companies in the world.

Although the toys were originally marketed to boys, the company carved out a new niche in the female market about 10 years ago, and there were lots of little girls Sunday building race cars and other block-shaped contraptions.

Finn Cousineau, a third-grader at St. Rose, was mesmerized by the elaborate exhibit of Lego art in the center of the hall, including Mayan ruins, an aircraft carrier and a miniature version of the Marin Center. “I feel happy,” he said, when asked his thoughts about the festival.

“He’s been obsessed with Legos since he was 6,” said his mom, Susan Cousineau of Santa Rosa. “He likes to make the kit, then take it apart and go freestyle.”

In the Make’N’Take Zone, Lucas Alexander of Geyserville was building a car alongside his two siblings and three friends. His mom, Danielle Alexander, said Lucas and his friends are getting into Lego Dimension, a new, interactive game that bridges the hands-on world of Legos with the virtual reality of an Xbox game.

In another high-tech spinoff, the Charles Schulz Museum set up a booth were kids could learn to use Legos to make a stop-motion animation movie with the help of iPads and an app.

“We’ve been offering Lego animation at the museum for seven to eight years,” said Jessica Ruskin, education director of the Santa Rosa museum. “Cartooning and drawing are pretty challenging things. This is an entrée into the three-dimensional films of today.”

Marti Laskey watched her 7-year-old son, Keanu, as he tried his hand at stop-action movie-making with a simple Lego character standing on a wagon.

“We’re regulars at the Brick Hutt,” she said. “He and his friends come up with fantasy Lego worlds. There’s so much creativity, and anything that sparks his imagination is good.”

Laskey said she also likes to put together her own Lego sets and then display them. She is looking forward to constructing a new “Yellow Submarine” set, inspired by The Beatles.

“It’s as much for adults as for kids now,” said Raff, who got into the hobby about seven years ago as a way to connect with his son, Daniel, now 16.

Paul Kaiser of Sebastopol, who has two children ages 6 and 9, stood guard over a medieval city that he built over the past two years.

“I was inspired by other people, but it’s mostly about the natural world, with the stones and the dirt,” he said. “There is a lot of natural stone and footpaths and water features and thatched roofs.”

In the lobby, Michael Boettner of Santa Rosa displayed an entire Lego city he has been building for years in his attic, complete with stores, sidewalks, people, cars and a train. The city measures ?about 4 feet by 20 feet and includes cultural references to his favorite movies, from “Elf” and “The Christmas Story” to “Ghostbusters” and “Star Wars.” This is the first time his city has been shown to the public.

“I spent 28 years in the Navy, and now I have all this free time,” he said. “Your mind is only focused on how to fit things together. So you don’t worry about anything … except a little plastic toy.”

You can reach Staff Writer Diane Peterson at ?707-521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com.