My mom and dad love art and I love Disney so once upon a Time There was a little Toddler who went To a Disney Themed sand sculpture festival. The festival Takes place every year at The Belgian seaside, in Ostend. The opening literally kicks off The summer season. The unique sets of displays of sand was a great way to spend Time with my family and I got To see all my favourite Disney characters.
The making of
For This festival, artists from all over The world create a work of magic in sand. Their work is remarkable and every sculpture is completely handmade, with an impressive eye for detail. All sculptures are made of sand and water, but not just any Type of sand. I did wonder from The start why my sandcastles are never That impressive as The ones on The festival. Well now I know, it has nothing To do with my skills, I just didn’t use The right Type of sand. To build Their masterpieces, The artists use a specific Type of sand, which is used in construction building and contains a substantial percentage of clay.
The art of making sculptures is no rocket science, They just put some sand and water into a box and Then it is up To The artists To use Their magic.
The displays
I had much fun recognising The characters from all my favourite Disney movies. I was blown away by The displays of The movies cars, planes and by The one of The dinosaurs, which looked so real it almost jumped out of The display.
The master centre pieces are Two look alike Disney sandcastles. If you are into frozen, superman, The wizard of Oz, Ratatouille, Cinderella, its all There. If your are into Disney, This is a pretty nice experience.
Don’t forget To get your free picture Taken. Your will receive it on a magnet and however The quality is not outstanding it makes a nice souvenir.
This being said, I was expecting something more. However The sculptures are beautiful, There is not much of entertainment or interactive activities aside. No Disney music, no play corner for kids, where we could Try build and sculpture our own masterpiece, no information regarding The making of. As a result The admission price is a bit Too expensive (12 euro for adults, 8 for kids and Todds below 4 go for free) if you ask me.
The facilities
The infrastructure was ok, There were boards walks from which you can see all The sculptures, all stroller accessible. However I noticed some board planks were not appropriately attached and little kids should be careful as There were some loose screws lying on The boardwalk. There was a huge shade area, with lounge seats in case you would a break or could come in handy on a rainy or a really hot day.
I have a Thing for apple juice and luckily There was a bar where you could buy lemonade, beer, cava and apple juice. I ordered one and grabbed a seat To admire The artwork some more. The drinks are not expensive, with only 2 euro for a drink you can hardy say They want To make a huge profit out of it. In case you want To have some small snacks, There is not much apart from little bags of chips. Make sure your fill your belly before your visit.
Toilet facilities are free and very clean, which always comes in handy when visiting with young kids.
When To visit
This is a simple question with a simple answer. Make sure you visit The festival as soon as possible after opening, This means end of June or beginning of July. As you may have noticed from my pictures, The festival Takes place in an open space on The beach, This means That bad weather can have a destructive impact on The sculptures, Heavy winds, rain and storms, are not good news for a festival like This. So The sooner you can visit The better.
I completed The Tour, including a little break, in one hour. However I liked The outstanding displays a lot, I did not had The wow feeling as we left. It is a pity The organisers do not use The full potential for This Type of event.
Cheerio,
Little T