The Parksville Sand Sculptures are well worth visiting

By Keith and Heather Nicol

Participants come from all over Europe and North America

      Parksville, B.C. near Nanaimo is well known for its summer sand sculpting competition and exhibition but since we moved to Courtenay 2.5 years ago we somehow have not been down to check it out. So we decided to see this year’s sculptures while enroute to Nanaimo to drop our daughter off at the ferry. She had enjoyed Filberg Festival in Comox for the last few days and since we had to pass by Parksville we thought this was the ideal opportunity to pop in and have a look. And we certainly recommend it. 

This creation took the best 2 person sand sculpture

   The 24 sculptures are at the community beach in Parksville and although they were built in mid July they have been treated to withstand wind and rain and so still look very good. The sculptors built their masterpieces from July 14-16, 2017 and they use special sand with no impurities. Once they were finished , the sculptures were sprayed with an environmentally friendly glue-water mixture to help keep the sculpture together. We were impressed not only by the detail in the art work but also the size of some of the pieces. The artists have come from all over North America and Europe to compete for the prize money awarded to the top sand creations.  The exhibit is on until August 20 so if you are traveling to or through Parksville this summer pop in and have a look at this impressive display. Visitation has been steadily rising and last year more than 130,000 people saw the sand creations. For more info see:  http://www.parksvillebeachfest.ca

You can also enjoy the huge beach next to the exhibit