Festival Overture 2006

In Jūrmala, during the Jomas street fair in 2006, there was an event that can be considered the “granddady” of all the subsequent “Magic Sand” festivals. The Finnish sculptor Kimmo Frosti and the Latvian sculptor Sandis Kondrāts cooperated in creating the sand sculpture “Ice cream” (“Saldējums”). Magic sand came to life and started to sing. At this moment the sound has brought us to “Magic Sand Riga 2011”.

Festival “Magic Sand 2007”

Jūrmala

Although the festival was numbered “1”, it revived the professional sand sculpture tradition, begun precisely in Jūrmala 15 years earlier. The beginning of the tradition is considered the International Sculpture Quadrinnale “Rīga-92”, during which, on June 27^th, 1992 at the Lielupe estuary, sculptors were creating art from sand. On this occasion Latvia was represented by such recognized artists as Kristaps Gulbis, Gļebs Panteļejevs, Olga Šilova and Anda Neretniece.

2007 in Majori artists created eight 3 metre high sculptures from sand, but sculpture students from the Latvian Art Academy made the largest sand sculpture, to date in the Baltic States.

The artistic directors of the festival, Latvian sculptors Sandis Kondrāts and Uldis Zariņš, and representatives from Lithuania, Estonia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland and Russia, showed their talent in Jūrmala.

Festival “Magic Sand 2008”

Jūrmala

The summer of 2008 once more saw the traditional Joma Street Fair, for the second time in Latvia, the International Baltic Sand Sculpture Festival – “Magic Sand 2008”- formed part of this fair.

Participating in the festival “Magic Sand 2008”, were 12 professional artists from 11 countries – USA, Estonia, Ireland, Russia, Latvia, Great Britain, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Singapore, Germany and Finland, including the previous year’s prize wining Finnish sculptor Kimmo Frosti.

The winner of the spectator’s prize, the famous US sculptor Daniel Glover, predicted that many sculptors will soon be seeking to add participation in the “Magic Sand” to their CV, as the festival is of a high artistic standard and is well attended.

The artistic directors, as in the previous year, were the Latvian sculptors Sandis Kondrāts and Uldis Zariņš.

Festival “Magic Sand Liepāja 2008”

The creation of monumental sand sculpture about the battle of Durbe in Liepāja

In August of 2008 a sand sculpture festival “Magic Sand” held in Liepāja, was dedicated to the 90^th anniversary of the Latvian state and to one of Kurzeme’s historie’s most dramatic pages – the battle of Durbe in the 13^th Century, when the Cours and Lithuanians defeated the Knights of the Livonian Order.

During the “Magic Sand Liepāja” a sand sculpture, over 5 metres high and 12 metres long, forming a monumental relief sculpture wall, was created. One side of the wall illustrated the lives of the ancient Cours, the other showed the battle of Durbe.

The festival producer, Reinis Druvietis, addressed the audience, commenting Latvia’s 90^th anniversary and dedicating the festival to one of Latvia’s and Kurzeme’s/Courland’s histories most significant events: “the battle of Durbe testifies that, by uniting strength and will it is possible to overcome much stronger opposition”.

The festival “Magic Sand Liepāja” was the result of the cooperation of an international team. The creative director was the Finnish sculptor Kimmo Frosti, the creator and director of the largest Northern European Sand Sculpture festival in Lappeenranta. Artists from Latvia, Finland, the Netherlands and the Chech Republic participated in the creation of the work – “Latvia 90 – the Latvian story “The battle of Durbe””.

The festival “Magic Sand Liepāja” was co-produced by the production group “Rain Project” and SIA “Frosti Art” in collaboration with the Liepāja city council.

Festival “Magic Sand 2009”

Jūrmala

The festival “Magic Sand”, that took place in Jūrmala in July 2009, was already the third International Baltic Sand Sculpture festival. The theme of the festival was “Summer  dream” and the sculptors created the most diverse visions in the sand.

The festival assembled sculptors, recognized both in Europe and throughout the world, who have turned their hand to sand sculpture. The participants in the 2009 “Magic Sand” festival included the winners of the world sand sculpture championships in Harrison, Hanneke Supply (Belgium) and Martijn Rijerse (the Netherlands), the winner of the 2008 “Grand Prix” in the important USA sand sculpture competition “Virginia Beach” – Eva Suzuko McGrew (USA) and one of the founders of the sand sculpture movement in Europe Marjon Katerberg (the Netherlands).

The embody their summer dreams the sculptors used 300 tonns of sand. The sculpting work began at the end of June and on July 5^th, during the Joma street fair, the sand sculpture park was opened to the spectators.