Since the year 2003 Pera in the Algarve has been host to the amazing spectacle that is the Fiesa International Sand Sculpture Festival. The festival is an annual event and attracts sculptors and spectators from around the world. Each year there is a different theme at the event and this helps to bring people back to the festival to see what their favourite sculptors will come up with each year.
It takes the sculptors a tremendous amount of patience, accuracy and skill to create the sand sculptures and they also take a very long time to sculpt. So that the sculptors have enough time to create them and also so that lots of visitors can witness them, the festival goes on for months each time lasting from the middle or end of April until October. This allows most people visiting the area during the summer to visit the festival at some point.
In 2010 the theme for Fiesa was 'The Living World' at brought about some of the best sculptures to date. The detail in some of the animals was truly amazing and the sculptors were able to make them look fantastically lifelike despite being in many cases much larger than their real life form. With the festival open until midnight people can see the sculptures under the moonlight which really shows off their details.
When people visit the Fiesa International Sand Sculpture Festival there is lots for them to see and they have plenty of time to really take in the details of the sculptures. With the festival opening each day at 10am and remaining open until midnight people can experience the sculptures by daylight or by moonlight when they really come to life. What most visitors don't realise before getting into the festival is just how big the sculptures actually are.
For families the sand sculpture festival makes a really good trip away from the hotel or beach for the day and with admission less than ten euros for adults it isn't really expensive considering what is on offer. Children can watch the sculptors creating their works and even be taught how to make sculptures themselves at certain points each day. It can get very hot though but there are places to sit and enjoy a drink or ice cream in the shade.
About the Author
By Fox Lescott
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