Since beginning of august there are beautiful sand sculptures to be admired in Zandvoort, a beach town in the Netherlands. The sculptures are part of the European Championship Sand Sculpture Festival Zandvoort 2014.
When I visited the sand sculptures, they will still building them up, using 200.000 kg of special sculpting sand. The sculptures are around 3 m³.
I particularly like this one; spectacular!
European Championship Sand Sculpting Festival 2014: Music and Dance
The theme of the competition is totally up my alley: Music and Dance.
There even is a sculpture on tango.
Although from the looks of it, it does not have a lot to do with tango. The sculpture has more associations with flamenco, so it seems, then with tango. But hey, it’s a grumbler who whines about that, right?
Doesn’t this look more like flamenco to you?
Things you did not know about sand sculpting
The sculptures stay there until the end of november 2014. What??! That long? Yes, you heard it right: until the end of november. Surprising, don’t you think, that sand sculptures can survive that long. Let me share some interesting knowledge about sand sculpting with you.
- Do they use normal sand for sand sculpting? No, beach sand e.g. has rounded sand grains that are unfit for sculpting. Sand with ‘hooky’ grains works much better. For this competition the sand comes from the river the Maas and it has been carefully selected in a factory first.
- Can sand sculptures withstand the elements? Yes, they can. The sand is pressed together really, really hard and vaste, making it quite resilient. Usually they stay intact up to wind speed 7 and only during extremely heavy rains, the hitting power of the drops might leave impounds on the sand surface.
- How long can sand sculptures survive? The longest duration indoors is 29 years and counting! Outdoors, 2,5 years has been reported.
- Where do the participants of this year’s European Championship Sand Sculpting Festival Zandvoort come from? They come from all over Europe, obviously. They have been found amongst and selected from the 600 professional sand sculptors that are around worldwide.
The sharpness of this sculpture is amazing! And how gravity taunting are those tubes of the trombone?!
The backside of the head with trombone.
Where can you find out more about this event
The sculptures in Zandvoort are located on the Badhuisplein, Kerkplein and Raadhuisplein. You can find a map here.
The festival in Zandvoort is part of the Sand Sculpture Route Haarlemmermeer. Find out more on their website.
Do you enjoy sand art? Where did you see some really good sand sculptures?
I truly do enjoy sand art. I love art in any form. It is all beautiful to me. We raised our children near Daytona Beach Florida, USA. There they held a sand sculpture contest every few years. I would take our children to see it every time it happened. I could not get over the wide age groups that participated in the sculpting event. The youngest was 15 the oldest was 81 years of age. Simply amazing! It is one of the many things I miss about living close to the ocean.
How cool that you lived nearby a beach with sand sculpture contests, April! I would have gladly joined you each time, since I love those events too!
Very cool sculptures! I would love to be there to watch the sculptures being created. When I visited Rio de Janeiro I enjoyed seeing many sand sculptures along the beach - a nice surprise.
I haven’t been to the Netherlands in many years - I will have to keep Zandvoort in mind next time I go - thanks for sharing!
Cheers,
Susan
Wow, that must have been amazing seeing a lot of sculptures on that beach. I have never been to Rio de Janeiro. Did you find it safe enough there?