Sugar Sand Festival

This festival is currently being held in Clearwater, Florida.  It is a popular resort city, as well as retirement community, which overlooks the Gulf of Mexico.  This week it is a destination place because of the Sugar Sand Festival.  One thousand tons of the white sugar sand from its broad beaches have been used to create sand sculptures, as the one below.  The theme of this year's festival is All Out Music.

Pictured above is Bob Marley.  Below is the Police, and next to them is the Yellow Submarine, which has each one of the Beatles staring out the windows.  Overhead lighting frequently changes the color of the sculptures, which makes for some interesting effects on them.  I would have liked to have seen a bright yellow on that submarine, but it never happened.

It took ten artists nine days to create the different musicians, as well as a variety of bands and one symphony.  There are certainly a variety represented, from Louis Armstrong to Lady Gaga, Janis Joplin, Grunge, to Glenn Miller- to name but a few.  One group familiar to me are the Beach Boys.

Prince was not included, until this week.  Because of his untimely death many felt he should be included.  An artist was working on him while we were there, which gave us an opportunity to watch a sand sculpture being created.  Pictured below is Patrick Harsch.  Off to his left side is a photograph of Prince during his classic Purple Rain years, which Harsch is copying from.

The festival has lots of things going on this week, in addition to the sand sculptures there is live entertainment, and on Pier 60 (pictured below) there are artisans and craftsman as well as street performers.  A children's area with sand hills to climb, and sand boxes to play in suited Nathan just fine.  Unfortunately it was a bright sunny day, standing in any of the lines for food or drink could get very uncomfortably warm.