Bricktastic 2023 - LEGO fan event in Manchester UK - National Library of Ireland model

The last weekend of February saw the UK’s largest LEGO fan event come to the Manchester Central exhibition centre. Bricktastic was back, bigger and better than ever before!

Bricktastic is a two day event organised by the charity Fairy Bricks, who do excellent work providing LEGO sets to sick children in hospitals around the world, and Bricktastic’s profits go to support their work each year. Bricks McGee were proud to sponsor the event this year to help support the LEGO fan community and the work Fairy Bricks does.

With around 180 exhibitors from around the world, there was a huge range of LEGO models and inspiration to see at Bricktastic 2023, from large city scenes to beautiful architecture. Activities for visitors included a chance to take part in a LEGO Build The Change workshop themed around climate change – with builders’ models putting photographed for display on the official LEGO.com website – as well as giant brick pits to play in, and a huge LEGO mosaic built by the public over the weekend.

If you missed out this on Bricktastic this year, there are some fantastic overview videos by You Tuber “London Bridge Bricks“:

And if you really want to attend next year, save the date for 24th and 25th February 2024, when the event returns to Manchester Central and give the Bricktastic event page on Facebook and Instagram a follow. And be quick with tickets once they’re released – the event usually sells out weeks before the show dates with LEGO fans of all ages keen to be inspired.

Our favourite LEGO models at Bricktastic

This is going to be a hard list to pick for, as the diversity and quality of the models on display was so high!

David & Breda’s National Library of Ireland

LEGO Model of the National Library of Ireland's reading room by David and Breda Fennell

David and Breda are members of the Irish LEGO User Group Brick.ie (incidentally, their Brick Feile fan event in July is on our UK and Ireland LEGO fan event list for 2023) and exhibited this superb piece of LEGO architecture in the form of the National Library Ireland.

It was breathtaking to see it in the brick after seeing it through Facebook previously – it took David and Breda 5 years to build, and it was worth every second – at least to the casual observer!

Photo: LEGO Model of the National Library of Ireland’s reading room by David and Breda Fennell.

LEGO Guggenheim model by Gordon Finlay

It was great to see Gordon’s range of minifigure scale architecture sets, including the classic Falling Water house, but the one that caught our eyes was the minifigure scale Guggenheim Museum – brilliantly clean and curvy, just as it should be.

LEGO Guggenheim Museum model at Bricktastic 2023 fan event in Manchester UK

Darren and Mark’s Penny Farthing

Finally, Darren and Mark’s LEGO penny farthing really caught our eyes at Bricktastic 2023 – beautifully scaled, and available to vote for on LEGO Ideas with a chance it could become a LEGO set one day. Darren and Mark are the owners of The Collector Emporium Bricklink store too.

LEGO Penny Farthing at Bricktastic Manchester 2023 by Darren and Mark - Collector Emporium

All in all, we had a great weekend at Bricktastic 2023, and can’t wait for it to return in February 2024 – what was your favourite model?