Saturday, 12 January 2019

Xmas / NY 2 Creativity in the sand

On New Year's Eve, our entire party participated in a lovely contest held on the North Broulee beach just south of the Mossy Point headland. The competitive task, which was judged officially at the end of construction time was for teams of people to create sand sculptures. Teams of 5 could be kids only or, in the open event, both adults and kids and these two fields were judged separately.

The beach was pre-marked with rectangular and flattish construction sites and the sculptures on any subject had to be made from the sand within one's chosen zone, maybe embellished with sea shells, sea-weed, or little stones. Now for the amazing bit! There were about 130 contesting reams - registration necessary - each with roughly 5 contestants. Then there were the on-lookers, both family members and the general public. Let's say that for each team there were on average 3 'family' members and 2 private on-lookers. That makes close to 1300 people on the beach ... and believe me it was crowded. Fortunately the tide was out ... but slowly incoming ... which made for more space. And the weather was lovely - sunny and warm.

Have a look a the registration desk, yours truly, and the hundreds of people involved:








Next, I'll focus on the sculpture created by Flynn, Ella, Max, James and Henry along with their parents. It was Pikachu - Pokemon character about whom I know little! The did a great job and plenty of admirers stopped by to have a look. Alas they didn't win a prize, but that wasn't the real point of the day, which was practicing collective artistry and imagination. Here's Pikachu in various stages of construction:





And here are some of the surrounding competitors - even including prizewinners. Some won money and others were commended.






I'll let you work out what the sculptures represent, but you must agree that they're of a very high standard. It was an inspirational event.

AS

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