2018 Sand Sculpting Festival

This past weekend we went to check out the annual Revere Beach International Sand Sculpting Festival. Whew! Quite a mouthful. As you might guess from the name, this event is held every year and people from around the world come to show off their sculpting skills. It's not just about the contest, there's also plenty of food trucks and carnival-like food stands, there's even a Ferris wheel!

Fun fact: Revere Beach is the country's first public beach.

I've gone to this a handful of times and it never stops amazing me. The artists put in untold hours to create something that will only last a few days. Crazy!

The sand part takes place on the beach (duh) and they close off part of the street that runs along side for all the street fair type stuff. We went later in the day thinking the crowds would be smaller. We were wrong!

What is normally a 15-20 minute drive took close to an hour! 

I've been to comic conventions that have easier crowds to get through.
Pardon the security fences in my shots. It used to be setup so that you could go right up to the fence and be able to shoot over/through it.

The artists are usually given a topic or theme for the contest but this year they were given total freedom to do anything they wanted so there were some interesting entries. Each one has a sign next to it with the artist and title of the work. I didn't take photos of them so most of these I don't have the actual names for.

This one is called The Raven & The Frog. Obviously that's Poe on the left but I have no idea who The Frog is supposed to be.

This one of Shiva was my favorite of the day. It just looks like something you'd find in an ancient temple carved from stone.

This was my second favorite. A broken time piece being held by a skeleton. You can see part of the skull on the left and the fingers curling around the back of the watch. I suppose maybe it's sinking into the sand and its time is up?

Here's a close-up of the watch so you can see what crazy detail was put into the gears.

And the award for creepiest work goes to this giant sleeping baby.

This one was Mrs. Dex's favorite. It's called "A Nouveau Love". It took 5th place overall and also won the fan's choice vote. There's a lot of fine detail there!

"Vanishing Muse" took 1st place and was created by a guy from Moscow.

Every year there is an enormous center piece that spotlights all the sponsors of the event. This one is themed around kids books. Way over on the right is Humpty Dumpty. A bit to his left is The Cat in the Hat and just behind the Cat is the Fish. On the left of the castle is Jack climbing a bean stalk and opposite him is a caterpillar, maybe a very hungry one?

They're hard to see but atop the left part of the wall you'll need to Make Way for Ducklings. The story takes place in Boston and there's a statue in the Boston Public Gardens that's pretty well known.

Also hard to see is a water jet! If you look on the left where the gates connect you can kind of see it. There was one on each side of the castle and they would occasionally spritz the gathered crowd taking photos. It was pretty funny!

There's a handful more pics on Flickr where you'll be able to view them in a larger format.
Or you can flip through the slideshow below.