2016 Revere Beach International Sand Sculpting Festival (Revere, MA)

Dates Of Event: July 22-24

Location: Revere Beach, Revere Beach Boulevard, Revere, MA

Hours:

The hours of the sand sculpting festival were:

July 22 and Sat. July 23 from 10AM to 10PM and Sun. July 24 from 10AM to 8PM

Revere Beach is open 365 days a year

Cost:  No Admission Fee

Parking: One website states there is free parking on Revere Beach Boulevard where the beach is located.  But, I noticed signs said read there is a 4 hour parking limit on the boulevard during weekdays.  Parking is free on the boulevard during weekends and holidays.  If you can’t find parking on the boulevard there is a $5 parking fee at the Wonderland Greyhound (1300 North Shore Road, Revere MA).  You can also park at Suffolk Downs (525 William F McClellan Highway, Boston MA) about 20 minutes away.  A free shuttle can take you to the beach on the weekends  There are literally hundreds of parking spots on the boulevard.

Time To Allot For Visit:  About 30 minutes to an hour to view all of the sand sculptures

Dog Friendly:  Yes, on the sidewalk but not on the beach

Highlights: Sand sculptures, pretty beach, long, well kept beach

Each year, sand sculpting masters come to Revere Beach from all over the world to test their skills at the International Sand Sculpting Festival.  The family (and dog) friendly event is usually held the 4th weekend of July.  In addition to the intricate works of art and pristine beach, there are also many activities and vendors for the entire family to enjoy.  The theme of this year’s main sand sculpture pictured above was “Hands On The Wheel” (a not so slight jab at texting while driving I would gather) and the gracious sponsors.

Being the early riser than I am (have become), the shading and sun was tough to work with.  It’s actually easier in some ways to shoot when the sun is higher or when there is cloud cover, I have learned.

The big winner in the solo competition at this year’s festival was Melinage Beauregard of Montreal, Canada, for her “Go With The Flow” sand sculpture.  This is the second year in a row Melinage has won this competition.  She won both the overall competition voted on by the audience and she also won the sculptors choice award which was voted on by the fellow sculptors.

One thing I have noticed about these impressive sculptures is the subtle things that still must take an inordinate amount of time to create but make a huge improvement, like grading on the side of a sculpture.

Second prize in the solo competition went to Italian sculptor Leonardo Ugolini for his work “Together.”  Ugolini paid close attention to detail in his sculptuure.  In the front, just above the astronaut’s head he etched “We Are Alone”.  On the back of the sculpture, he etched “We Are Alone” backwards.

The third place winner in the solo competition was Guy-Olivier Deveau of Montreal, Canada, for his sculpture “Carcass.”

In the duo sand sculpting competition, the team of Dan Belcher of St. Louis, Missouri and Marianne van den Broek of Key West, Florida for their sculpture, “Body Art.”

One of the interesting things about this sculpture is there is supposed to be a hidden image if you look at it from a certain angle (straight ahead),  As the arrow and instructions in front of the sculpture directs you, you should see a frog in the sculpture.

Do you see it?  Me neither.

Second place in the duo competition went, appropriately enough, to Abe Waterman of Prince Edward Island, Canada and Morgan Rudluff of Santa Cruz, California for their piece “Le Numero Deux” (the number two).  This sculpture looks innocent and harmless enough until you take a closer look.

Well, you get the jist of it.

Third place in the duo competition was awarded to Deborah Barrett/Cutulle of Saugus, MA, and her partner Steve Topazio of Tiverton, Rhode Island.  They also took home the People’s Choice Award.  As a side note, you may notice that some of the sculptures seem grainier than other sculptures, this is because it rained Saturday night and when I took the photos on Sunday there was a different texture to the sand.  I included a closeup of the sand in this group of photos for a better perspective of how the sand looked.

The other contestants'(there were 20 contestants total including the duo and solo artists) sculptures are posted below.

“I Love You So Much” by Marielle Heesels from the Netherlands.

“Always Connected” by Pavel Mylnikov from Moscow, Russia.

“Peaceful Dreams” by Nikolay Torkov of Moscow, Russia (maybe not so peaceful dreams?)

“The Last Flight” by Benjamin Probanza from Acapulco, Mexico.

“Redemption” by Jonathan Bouchard (aka “Jobi”) hailing from Montreal, Canada.

“How They View Us” – an interpretation of the Statue of Liberty holding a weapon.  This was the only sculpture with any inkling of a political theme.

“Fractal” by David Durcharme of British Columbia and Enguerrand David from Brussels, Belgium.

“Little Owl”by Paul and Remy Hoggard of Bulgaria.

They also held a children’s sculpting lesson activity for ages 5 to 12.  I am sure there were some future sand sculpters in that class.

Dogs like the sculptures also.  Revere Beach is a great place to walk your dog.  The long walkway along the beach will wear out even the most active dog.

Here are a few of the cute pooches I saw during my visit.

Neelix is a 4 year old pure breed Keeshond.  Neelix is named after the Star Trek Voyager character and he is so cool he even has his own Facebook page which you can like and follow here.  I did.

Darby is a 14 year old Boston Terrier Lab.

Lucy is a 10 year old Labradoodle.

James, a 6 year old French Bulldog, preferred to ride with his mom on her bicycle.

Below is a short video of one of the sand sculptors working on his sculpture.

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New England Nomad

Below is a video of the sand sculptors explaining their sculptures and what they mean to them.