A bit windy, but the Sandfest sculptors are coming anyway

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At the Sauble Beach Sandfest on Saturday, it was so windy that the sand that was kicked up was painful at times.

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The wind pushed the lake so close to the shore that visitors wondered how close the water would get to the sand sculptures at the center of the annual event.

But it was still an August weekend at the beach, with mostly sunny weather, which compared favorably with the rain that greeted the sand sculptors at the start of the day last year. Later on Saturday, however, the outdoor evening concert had to be cancelled due to rain.

Gino Armellini and his family won the competition last year and returned to build another sand sculpture with friends. They were among the six participants, joined by three sculptors with exceptional talent who were commissioned to build sand castles.

“I’m 50, so I’ve probably been coming here for 50 years. There are pictures of me in diapers on the swings over there,” Armellini said. His family and friends were carving an octopus when he paused to talk.

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It was originally supposed to be a mermaid, but the children advised against it because it would be too “gender specific,” he said. “All the little ones said we want something that everyone can enjoy. Not everyone likes mermaids.” Their sculpture took third place on Saturday.

One of the sculptors hired was Tanya Kastl from Southampton, who worked with her grandson Sebastien on a sculpture of Garfield the cat basking in the sun while his household rival, Odie the dog, builds a sandcastle.

“Garfield is quite the lazy one, he’s lying over there in a chair and drinking something,” said Kastl, laughing, as the surf continued to roar.

She said it might be fate that she, then called Kastl, ended up on the CBC television show “Race Against the Tide” in 2020, where she built sandcastles before the tide swept them into the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick.

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“Oh my God, the wind and sun drying out the sand is the worst. We actually prefer it when it rains,” she said. “Sand really absorbs a lot of water.”

She has been making sand sculptures for 20 years and has entered a U.S. competition, she said. She has been commissioned to make sand sculptures at Wasaga Beach and Cobourg Beach. She is trying to get more commissions for marriage proposal sculptures, she said.

These are hearts or something that has special meaning to the couple, and the gentleman brings his future bride there to propose marriage, Kastl said.

She said she likes sand sculptures because they’re just water and sand, so they’re all natural. It’s temporary, which makes the sculptures even more special. “It’s very tactile, isn’t it? You have the sound of the waves. You have the sand, and when you touch it, it’s actually meditative. Like you’re staying in the zone making it. Very relaxing.”

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Becky Knight, president of the Sauble Beach Chamber of Commerce, admitted that the wind was stronger than she would have liked and that as a result the number of sculpture submissions fell by about half compared to last year.

People placed tokens in small containers on the posts next to each sculpture to indicate their favorites.

Knight said she was grateful the event could go ahead on the beach with the blessing of the Saugeen First Nation, which owns most of Sauble’s north beach as a court recently found.

The Chamber is doing something to promote activities on the beach to help local businesses, which donated awards to the first, second and third place sculptors.

There are two more Wednesday night concerts on the town square this summer. Josh Ritchie will perform on August 14 and Steve Dickenson with Skinner’s Bluff on August 21. There are five more car shows on the beach on Tuesday nights.

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