SEOUL, May 04 (AJP) -For Koreans, Children’s Day and LEGO are nearly inseparable — a pairing as familiar as balloons, picnic mats and spring sunshine.
At Gwanghwamun Square over the weekend, that bond unfolded on a citywide scale as the “2026 Gwanghwamun Family Festival – Let’s Play Gwanghwamun” transformed the heart of Seoul into a sprawling outdoor LEGO playground packed with families, strollers and towering brick creations.
Organized with the Seoul Metropolitan Government and LEGO Korea, the festival featured installations made from some 6 million LEGO bricks, turning one of Seoul’s busiest civic spaces into a colorful landscape of imagination and noise.
Children crouched over giant building tables assembling miniature cities, while parents — many appearing just as absorbed — helped snap pieces into place with competitive seriousness. Elsewhere, families raced LEGO cars down custom-built tracks or hurried through relay-style missions designed to turn play into teamwork.
The square moved with the rhythm of a holiday carnival. Giant mascots wandered through crowds, stage performances echoed against surrounding government buildings and long lines formed at photo zones where children posed proudly beside oversized LEGO sculptures.
The festival’s free-flowing layout encouraged visitors to wander without a fixed course, allowing families to drift naturally between activities much like children moving from one toy to another at home.
For many parents in their 30s and 40s, the festival also carried a layer of nostalgia. LEGO, once a prized Children’s Day gift of their own childhoods, has become a shared ritual passed to another generation — one of the rare toys capable of surviving changing trends, screens and short attention spans.
The festival continues through May 5 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., keeping central Seoul briefly suspended in the bright logic of childhood: build freely, play loudly and never underestimate the power of a small plastic brick.
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