A BEWITCHING ocean scene sculpted from 400 tons of sand – complete with submarine – is transforming the seaside resort dubbed Birmingham-on-Sea.
Dancing dolphins, sea lions, stingrays and deep-sea divers are all appearing at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, rendered in millions of grains.
Twelve of the world’s best sand sculptors have been onsite for nearly a fortnight, to create the scenes.
Visitors begin at the “seafront”, depicting local landmarks, before walking down into the sand ocean among the giant sea creatures.
Rain will not pose a problem to the painstaking work as the sand is heavily impacted, then glazed with a “biodegradable glue”.
Artist Nicola Wood, aged 26, a former World Sand Sculpture champion (doubles category), has created a montage of stingrays and seals.
Wood, from Rothley, Leicester, said: “I’ve been doing this professionally for three years and I also work in with snow and ice.
“We’ve been working for nearly a week, between 9am and 6pm.
“I’m creating a whole swoop of stingrays swimming down to the bottom with seals swimming about. You walk in at beach level then find yourself surrounded by sea life.”
Star of the show will be a huge blue whale measuring 15 metres long and 2m high.
Event spokeswoman, Luci Hortop, said: “We compact the sand in wooden frames and pile them up, almost like a pyramid.
“The sand is then sprayed with biodegradable glue to give it a hardness which protects it from wind and rain.”
More than 42,000 people visited last year’s display, featuring some of the world’s famous landmarks.
Project manager Alec Messchaert, of the World Sand Sculpting Academy, said: “We get a great reception from people visiting the event.
“Over the past five years we have built a great relationship with the events team at North Somerset Council and with many people in the town and look forward to returning each year.”
The Weston-super-Mare Sand Sculpture Festival opens to the public on Saturday.
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