Parksville Beachfest returns this summer after pandemic hiatus
Parksville’s Beachfest is returning in mid-July after a two-year break with expectations that one of Vancouver Island’s premier summer attractions will be even better thanks to the community’s new outdoor theatre, now under construction.
“People can’t wait until it comes back. They’ve missed it,” Cheryl Dill, president of the Parksville Beach Festival Society, said Tuesday.
Along with other annual community events in B.C. and beyond, the festival was put on hold for 2020 and 2021 because of safety concerns around the pandemic.
This year, about 175 volunteers are again staging the festival at the Parksville Community Park and Beach, 193 Island Highway East.
This year’s theme is the Roaring Twenties.
Highlights include huge eyecatching sand sculptures, free lessons and demonstrations, an artisan market, free music, buskers, a light show, and a three-day ticketed music event.
The festival runs from July 15 to Aug. 21. During that time, it may well draw 125,000 locals and visitors to marvel at creations carved by 29 sculptors using just sand and water. Artists are permitted to spray a combination of an environmentally friendly glue combined with water to protect the sculpture’s exterior surface.
The festival is a key tourist attraction in the region and also generates money for local nonprofit groups. The suggested donation is $5 per person to enter the sand sculpture venue. The society said that 25 per cent of gate proceeds are donated to community causes.
Dill said the event generated more than $60,000 to community organizations in 2019. In total, it has donated just over $1 million to community causes, including $200,000 toward the new theatre.
This year, 26 or 27 groups will be receiving funds from the festival. Money goes to organizations that provide everything from a new quilt to help a seriously ill resident feel more comfortable, to therapeutic riding for those with mental-health challenges, to veterans, search and rescue, literacy, organizations supporting seniors with food and transportation, and bursaries for students.
A 2015 assessment estimated the festival delivered an $18-million impact to the community each year, Dill said.
Sculptors come from near and far. Many are from Canada and the U.S. while other will be here from Japan, Mexico, Central America, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy.
On July 14, artists will be in the enclosed sand sculpture area where they will block out their designs using specially fine sand brought in for the event. The beach’s sand is not used.
They have a total of 30 hours to complete their works. Sculpting wraps up on the following Sunday.
Double teams receive a 20 foot by 20 foot plot to work on, plus 15 yards of sand. Individual competitors receive 10 yards of sand and a 12 foot by 15 foot plot. Artists know each other, may have competed in Parksville previously, and enjoy answering questions from the public, Dill said. After Parksville, several are heading to Boston for another sand sculpting competition.
Sculptors apply for the chance to compete. The society gives them a travel stipend to get to Parksville, hosts them while here and provides an appearance fee. There are also prizes in different categories.
The society chooses artists who have significant experience. What draws so much interest? “I think it is the fact that so many of us had the experience of just trying to play in the sand and maybe we can’t fathom how they take such a substance that is so affected by water and the elements and make it into something that can stand for five and a half weeks and turn it into such a beautiful structure.”
It is the creativity that is so exciting, Dill said. Sometimes a sculpture will be literal to that year’s theme or it might be incredibly subtle, she said. Artists post information about their work for visitors to read.
For more information go to parksvillebeachfest.ca.