AIA Sandcastle Competition

Festival Location: Galveston, TX, USA

Festival State: Texan Festivals

Festival Type(s): Art Festivals, Summer Festivals

By: © Nelson Taylor 2009

Leave it to nutty over-achieving architects to come up with the largest and most competitive sandcastle contest in the nation. Since 1986, Texas architects have been descending upon Galveston's East Beach every June to sink their toes in the sand and begin building. But don't expect plastic shovels and day-glow buckets. With an annual audience of about 20,000, these hardcore beach bums are out for some serious blood. In 1999, 2,200 competitors on 75 teams each transformed a 10' x 10' plot of sand into a high-rise work of art in a matter of five hours.

"The competition has gotten pretty fierce," says event spokesperson Martha Murphree. "Blue prints and all. And now most teams are equipped with landscape architects and contracters who have earth movers and mechanized water pumps." When all is said and done, team members and their creations are judged on originality of concept, artistic execution, technical difficulty, carving technique and utilization of site. Ancilliary awards, such as Most Hilarious, Most Lifelike, and Crowd Favorite, are also given out. Although the event is free, parking is $5.