FIRST LEGO League Explore teams attend a Festival as their season capstone event. Festivals are designed to celebrate teams: they are not competitive.

Festivals are an important part of the FIRST LEGO League experience for team members. While it's not required that a team attend a Festival, students are able to present their work and see how other teams tackled the challenge. Team members can socialize with other teams, discuss their poster, demonstrate their model, and answer questions about their season.

Festivals run typically 3 hours: 1-2 hours for team reviewing sessions, a short break, then the awards ceremony.

Reviewing sessions are short interviews between reviewers and teams where teams describe their season, model and poster. Reviewers can be older students, teachers, or recruited volunteers trained to review. Teams are recommended to prepare a short, 2-3 minute presentation to convey their journey. The remaining time during a reviewing session is question and answer.

The awards ceremony celebrates every team and every participant. FIRST LEGO League Explore awards highlight areas where teams excelled.

Registration is not yet open for Festivals in Illinois.

Planning to host a festival? Let us know!

The list of Festivals in Illinois is dynamic: new Festivals are added as they are identified and confirmed. New Festivals are sent to teams via the Illinois FIRST LEGO League Explore Email Blasts.

Teams can attend as many Festivals as they choose. Each Festival costs $40 for a team to attend. Registration closes for Festivals 2 weeks prior to their date to ensure the proper quantity of materials can be provided.

*Signing up for a Festival does not guarantee attendance. Expect an email confirming attendance.

Invite friends, family, teachers, community leaders to learn about the team's season in a small event. The team could demonstrate at their school in their classrooms, at home or a library, or the team could bring their model and poster to the person with whom they are sharing. This is a good option for teams that want to take advantage of a low key sharing opportunity or don't have teams in their area to create a Festival.

These small community events can be made even better if there are any additional teams that want to partake!

Can't find a Festival to fit within the team's season? Run your own!

Starting a Festival is a low-maintance, easy option especially if there is a cluster of teams in an area that would benefit from a local Festival! Festivals can have any number of teams. Most Festivals in Illinois have between 6 and 18 teams, although some have less and some have more.

1. Inform the Program Delivery Partners of intent: PDPs can help you with ideas and provide additional information
2. Find a location: the best locations are donated locations
3. Set a date and time: think of the teams in the area that you are trying to serve. When do their seasons typically start and end? Catering to more teams will ensure that more teams can attend!
4. Using the Festival Guide, recruit volunteers, reviewers and organize the event
5. Run the event and have fun!

A limited number of "Partner Selected" spots are available to teams in Illinois to attend the Detroit World Festival in April/May. Please reach out to the Explore PDPs to learn more about this opportunity.