2013 Sand Sculpting Festival

This year marked the 10th anniversary for the Revere Beach National Sand Sculpting Festival. I try to go every year because the artists' work is always stunning. And I thought we picked the cooler day of the weekend but we had a 99 degree record breaking day. Even though the event has National in its name, the participants come from all over. 

The top four were from Canada, US, Mexico and Holland respectively.

And just to humble brag before getting into the pics...

One of my shots was featured on the Flickr Daily Blog on July 30th! 

The first thing that greeted us as we approached the beach was a flight of kites.

Sure it's not every day you see a giant panda flying in the sky but there was a slightly more unusual kite flying up there. That one right in the middle of the shot...

Took us awhile to figure out what it was because it's such an absurd thing to make into a kite!

They close down a section of the beach side road on the weekend of the festival and set up a few kiddie rides like a carousel and ferris wheel. The street is lined with local food trucks. Pretty much anything you wanted, it was there: seafood, pizza, chicken, hot dogs and...

Honestly, I like the truck more than the food. It was a $4 grilled cheese. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't anything to make me tell people to go there. They had a few options other than a basic sandwich but I like my grilled cheese simple. The service speed was also not great. They didn't seem to be prepared for crowds. The line of people that were waiting for their order was longer than the line of people waiting to order. I do regret not getting any Kickass Cupcakes as I've had them before. Trust me when I say they live up to the name!

After lunch, it was time to fight the crowds of people completely oblivious that other people may be standing behind them wanting to take pictures also.

This one is probably #2 on my list. It won 3rd place and is called "Listening to Life and Death". The facial detail is wonderful but then you walk by it and look in from the front...

I was shocked when checking Flickr this morning to see this shot featured on the 7/30 Flickr Daily Blog! As a result, my photos in this set have been getting a crazy amount of views. 

This next one is my favorite sculpture. It's fantastical but not leaning too much toward fantasy or science fiction. It could fit into either realm. I'm not sure why the lizard is posed in such an odd way but you can see the reins in its mouth and armor on the back. I also really like the rocks, which of course are made out of sand too.

Every year there is a large themed center piece that incorporates the event sponsors. Sometimes the sponsors have their own little sculpture next to it...

I'm blown away that the artist carved individual scales on the gecko. And check out the texturing on the rock. It's unbelievable how much time and effort is put into something that won't even last a week. I did go down early one year to see some of the artists working. They have a surgeon's tray of instruments they use to sculpt and texture the sand just right.

Here is this year's main center piece.

There aren't any people in this shot so you can't tell just how big it is. You can get a better idea in this shot. The top features the Boston skyline. The top tier has marathon runners going across it. The large runner on the right has the number 617 on him, which is an area code of Boston. The next tier has emergency personnel on each side. The back of it looks like a brick wall that has been tagged by the artists and other people involved in the event.

Disney Infinity was also there with a tent where they were demo'ing the game. I got to play for a few minutes while the Disney person was giving us the sales pitch and explaining how the game and pieces work. Each station in the tent had a different world and I ended up with The Incredibles. I ran around with Mr. I saving citizens trapped under debris and beating down Syndrome's robots. It felt about as complex as any of the recent LEGO character games and as much fun! I wasn't able to check out the Toy Box Mode, sadly. It was about 30 minutes to get into the tent for the five minute demo but we got some Infinity swag in the form of baseball hats and t-shirts so it was worth it.

There's even more pics in this Flickr set and you can see previous years here.