Boomsday - September 6, 2015

Post date: Sep 09, 2015 12:16:20 AM

The Tennessee Valley LEGO Club had a great time at Boomsday 2015, our first event in Knoxville, and the first event for the newly formed Knoxville chapter! We had a fantastic turnout both in terms of club members and public visitors. Most Boomsday attendance estimates are in excess of 200,000 for the event as a whole and for the Kid’s Zone, where we were located, we estimate somewhere between 1000 and 5000 visitors. From the club, we had Bill, Chris and Brian & Melissa from Huntsville; Jenni & Jon from Nashville and from Knoxville, we had Clay & Judy, Frosty & Michelle, Jeannette, Marty & Katie and Pete & Laura.

Our participation would not have been possible without the generous support of Mesa Associates, Inc who covered our event insurance, provided funds for our tent, tables and chairs and supplied a gorgeous banner to backdrop our display with.

We’re also very grateful for the awesome folks at Visit Knoxville who provided the perfect site for us to operate from, and who made every effort to accommodate our needs, address our concerns and make us feel welcome and appreciated.

With the public showing up as early as 2:00 for the 9:30 fireworks show, we really wanted to provide a creative outlet to help whittle away the hours, so we set out all our play brick and simply let our guests come and play as they pleased.

Backdropping the play area, we also setup a MOC display with enough free space for kids to show off the creations they built during the day.

Contributing to the MOC display were Bill, Frosty and Pete, but everyone present pitched in and helped setup Pete’s town & train display.

The planning for this event started back in February with an introductory pitch to Visit Knoxville, the agency responsible for Boomsday. Enthusiastic discussions ensued and we were able to work out a lot of the details in short order. Things were looking good until we encountered a major hurdle: this event would require insurance. This was the first time we’ve had to address this type of requirement and as an unincorporated club with no finances, we had no easy way to handle this. As late as July, it was looking like we might not be able to participate when we found an outstanding sponsor in Mesa Associates, Inc.

Around the same time, the club officially launched its local Knoxville chapter. With our participation finally ensured, the new chapter was given a crash course in event planning and all the final details were solidified over the month of August.

Thanks to the hard work and enthusiasm of so many club members, we were able to get off to a great start in Knoxville and we’re looking forward to building on the excitement in the future!