Two years ago the event was canceled. Last year the event was online. But this year we were finally back in the small town of Paredes de Coura, Portugal… and boy, did I miss driving on those empty Portuguese highways to get there!

I’m talking about this year’s Paredes de Coura Fan Weekend, of course, one of the more significant European events that finally went back to being in person after three years.

Unlike many other events, public admission for this one starts on Friday (afternoon), but it never feels like the event is meant for the public—on the contrary, it’s one of the most AFOL-centric events I know. Here are the highlights from Paredes de Coura Fan Weekend 2022.

Setting the Scene

My Italian friends and I got there on Thursday. We flew into Porto, as we always do (another option, if you fly, is Vigo, even though that’s in Spain; the event is very close to the border), rented a car, and drove to Paredes— it’s a one-hour drive. The event is held at the “Centro Cultural de Paredes de Coura”, the local cultural center, and this year the exhibition was a bit smaller than usual, so an additional tent they used to set up next to the center wasn't needed.

I assume fewer people came because some are not yet comfortable with flying? (I’m not either, to be honest, but I mask up and hope for the best.) Or maybe it’s not being used to meeting up with large crowds. It’s not easy to come out of a pandemic (especially when the pandemic is far from being over), but I’ll leave this kind of analysis to people who know what they’re talking about. There sure were a lot of international, friends and that was more than enough for me.

One of the main features of this event is its “lounge”. By “lounge” I mean a big private room with tables and lots of food and drinks made available by the organizers and that participants bring from all over the world. I know this might sound like a secondary thing, but trust me, it’s not. It was a huge thing the first time we experienced it back in the first edition of the event. Most big events here in Europe now have something similar, but that’s just because we all blatantly copied from this one, the original.

It’s not just the food and the drinks, of course (even though they help!), but it is the fact that you sit down and you talk to your friends, old and new. Of course, you can do something like this everywhere, but this event has the right number of people for it to work perfectly… not too many, not too few, it just works.

Accommodations and food are taken care of by the organizers: You pay a fixed - and very reasonable - amount of money when you register, and you don’t have to worry about anything. We ended up in a nice apartment not too far from the town, and we had all our meals served at a local school. It wasn’t the same school we used to go to in the past (that was within walking distance), so they rented a bus for us to go there. It probably wasn’t really necessary because it only takes about 15 minutes to get there on foot, but I’m sure many people appreciated the bus anyway!

Fun by the River

Moving on to more LEGO-ish things, Saturday morning we had the now-traditional games near the Coura River (again, within walking distance), called “AFOLs in the Nature”. It’s a series of fun games, played by teams, that involve LEGO bricks in some capacity. Things like “find the brick” in this huge area filled with nature things (I always participate in this game, and I always lose), dance without dropping a DUPLO brick you’re keeping between your foreheads (played in pairs), build a polybag using only two hands (again in pairs), build a polybag after running in a circle a certain amount of times (not as easy as it sounds) and so on.

Basically, it’s a lot of fun, and also unique in that kind of scenario. After the games, some crazy AFOLs even swam in the river a bit… (since the weather was already extremely hot, maybe they weren’t the crazy ones…)

On Saturday and Sunday afternoon we had more traditional convention activities. Jordan Paxton, from LEGO’s AFOL Engagement Team (AFOLET) was at the event, so we ambassadors had our “Ambassadors meeting” with him, followed later by a Q&A open to all AFOLs. I really appreciate Jordan’s honesty and frankness even when answering some of the most brutal questions from the audience!

We also had a couple of online calls with TLG people. The cultural center has an auditorium (basically a cinema) that’s perfect for all kinds of meetings, online or in person. Graphic Designer Ashwin Visser, Senior Manager Global Communication Partner Mélanie Cumbo (I was able to be there for this, very interesting, she talked about the initiatives for TLG’s 90’s anniversary) and Element Designer Felipe Silva Telles (I got to see only a part of this, I know, shame on me, as also a member of New Elementary. Jonas Kramm, though, fellow NE member, was there all the time and asked lots of questions!)

Time for the Show

In the auditorium we also had a quiz! They used Kahoot, which has now become a tradition (it’s a website you can use to create all kinds of quizzes, and participants only need a browser to participate—very easy. We’ve even used it during our BrickNerd Patreon Nerd Out calls.) The questions had been prepared by Comunidade 0937’s Ambassador Hugo Santos and were a mix of facts about past editions of the event and about TLG’s history. (0937 looks a little like LEGO spelled upside-down for those wondering.) It was a great quiz, with lots of interesting questions and even some clever tricky ones. (I’m not saying this just because I won, I swear! ;-) )

And then we had a final panel “BBB Talk Show - Bricks, Bits & Beers”. I’m pretty sure they came up with this because our own Are M. Heiseldal wasn’t at the event (Where were you, man? We missed you!) and couldn’t have his now traditional talks. This panel was a bit different then, with some tables put on the stage of the auditorium and Miguel Reizinho, the event’s organizer, calling a few well-known AFOLs to sit there with him and talk about everything.

Soon the discussion became very interesting and as members of the audience started participating, some panel members gave their seats on stage to these new voices. This happened more than once making the discussion very dynamic and fun. They started with Nick Trotta, Michael LeCount, Romão Santos, Stijn Van Der Laan and Jonas Kramm, and later Tom De Bruyker and Chris Roberts also got on stage. Other AFOLs intervened in the discussion from the auditorium, like Kevin Gascoigne, Jessica Farrell, David Fennell, Sergio Sobrevela, Luis Faria and Ronald Vallenduuk.

What did they talk about? Lots of interesting things… for example, if you know some of these people you will notice that many different generations were represented and one of the main topics was how the community has changed in the course of the years and how technology helped with the change. From there being nothing online, to sites like Brickshelf and LUGNET, to Flickr and now Instagram and closed servers on Discord (that might end up being too “hidden” for many to find them and join them).

They also talked about how some people’s toxicity sometimes ruins it for everyone, how “nerdy types” like us end up traveling the world and meeting lots of wonderful people, the moral implications of revisiting your own MOCs years later… the fact that Romão came out of his Dark Ages thanks to Monkey Island (!) and a lot more. (I should have taken notes…)

LEGO on Display

Of course we also had LEGO at this LEGO fan event and top quality too! So here’s a small gallery of what was on display:

Nice view from above.

I’ll bet Jonas Kramm’s mushroom house will become an official LEGO Ideas set.

If you’re wondering, those are all bars. Yes, it’s crazy.

You can find all the official photos from the event, on Flickr.

What else to say? I’ll surely mention the fantastic dinner on Saturday night (in this restaurant in the middle of nowhere on the hills) and of course the swag! Always the best. We got a backpack, a mug, a big anti-stress 2x4 brick, two event t-shirts (already my favorite, they included the 90th anniversary logo!), a notepad, the event brick, the ANE brick and the event’s exclusive set! A train with the event’s mascots, Ricky and Henriquetta… and also a “hidden” surprise in the middle of it. A custom-printed red 2x4 brick. Can’t ask for anything better.

Additional activities (for the public too, in this case) included the now traditional Fairy Bricks tombola and a mosaic representing a compilation of LEGO animals used in the past on the LUG’s t-shirts.

Of course the event is coming back next year! So I urge you to keep an eye open for the opening of registrations on their Facebook page and join us… no matter where you live in the world—there were people from the US even this year. And before the pandemic even people from Australia. Lots of people from Australia. No excuses! See you next year!

Did you go to this event? Did you jump in the river? Let us know in the comments below!

Do you want to help BrickNerd continue publishing articles like this one? Become a top patron like Charlie Stephens, Marc & Liz Puleo, Paige Mueller, Rob Klingberg from Brickstuff, John & Joshua Hanlon from Beyond the Brick, Megan Lum, and Andy Price to show your support, get early access, exclusive swag and more.