More than 36,000 people attended a hands-on, family-focused construction event at Glasgow's Riverside Museum over the recent weekend, as the venue hosted the inaugural Advance Construction Experience.

Organised by Advance Construction alongside industry partners, the free family event aimed to showcase the world of construction, engineering, and infrastructure through interactive activities, live demonstrations, and family entertainment. Scottish actor and professional wrestler Grado, together with former Rangers footballer Mark Hateley, attended as special guests.

Visitors took part in a range of activities across the weekend, including mini digger experiences, a dedicated sand pit, a showcase of vintage machinery, interactive challenges, and a live Construction Demonstration Zone where operators demonstrated equipment and played 'Digger Football' with a giant ball. St Mirren Football Club coaches and Mark Hateley also hosted a 'Beat the Goalie' challenge.

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The initiative was designed to highlight the broad range of career opportunities available in the sector, including plant operation, engineering, construction management, surveying, environmental roles, and technology.

A spokesperson for Advance Construction said: "We are completely overwhelmed by the response. To welcome more than 36,000 people over the weekend was beyond anything we could have imagined.

"The whole purpose of the Advance Construction Experience was to open our industry and let families see what construction is about and show the next generation just how fantastic our industry is, encouraging greater awareness of the diverse careers and opportunities available across construction, civil engineering and the wider infrastructure sector. Looking back at the weekend, we think we did exactly that.

"Attracting new talent and developing the next generation of skilled workers remains one of the construction industry's most important challenges, and we wanted young people to see the machines, meet the people behind them, experience some of it for themselves and hopefully go home thinking, 'I could do that one day'.

"Seeing thousands of children completely fascinated by the plant and demonstrations was incredible. If this weekend has inspired even a small percentage of them to consider a future career in construction, then we have achieved exactly what we set out to do."

Advance Construction expressed thanks to Riverside Museum, as well as the volunteers, exhibitors, and supporters who contributed to the event. Transport operators McGill's Buses and Glasgow Minibus and Coach Hire were also thanked for managing transport and shuttle connections to overflow parking facilities during the busy weekend.