Weather Impacts to expect this weekend at SandFest and Wings Over South Texas<\/a><\/p>\nDespite the conditions, organizers say they are prepared to make adjustments if needed to keep the event going.<\/p>\n
The combination of wind and shifting tides presents added challenges for an event centered around sand, but competitors say they are adapting.<\/p>\n
Veteran sand sculptor Damon Langlois, who has been sculpting for 30 years, said the weather has already created setbacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday I called it a Mulligan day,\u201d Langlois said.<\/p>\n
He said strong wind gusts have made sculpting more difficult under tight time constraints.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wind’s beating at you and there’s so much time pressure. There’s points where you’re like, you just say to yourself, I have to commit,” Langlois said. “I carved this face. Then I stepped away and went to the bathroom and came back and saw it from afar. And I had to cut it all back because it was this awful sloped angle, and then beep an hour left.”<\/p>\n
Randy Ewing, competing in the semi-professional category, said the conditions have added another layer of difficulty.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday will be an eight hour day and tomorrow will be an eight hour day,\u201d Ewing said.<\/p>\n
He also said wind has been one of the biggest challenges so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was sculpting one of the eyes, right? So I’m poking out one of those eyes and literally the wind is pushing me and I’ve got to steady my hand. Yeah, the wind was crazy today. The wind was really tough,\u201d Ewing said.<\/p>\n
In addition to wind, organizers are also monitoring potential high tides.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s just sand and water, so you’re battling it. You always keep your fingers crossed. There’s worse weather than this, so there’s also a bit of gratitude. You know, the sun’s not beating on us too hard. Heavy sun, heavy wind, just blows your sculpture away,\u201d Langlois said.<\/p>\n
Texas Sandfest President Tim Parke said they have made preparations to address weather concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have plans in place for wind. We met with the city today to talk about the possible high winds coming in tomorrow night and early Sunday morning. That’s the biggest concern is, you know, tents and other things that fly around. So we are prepared,\u201d Parke said.<\/p>\n
Parke added that measures are also in place to protect sculptures from potential flooding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s large sand berms along the beach that keep the water out. So we do plan for a lot of this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Despite the challenges, competitors say the sense of community remains strong, making it all easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I come to a competition, I learn something because it’s less like competitors and more like just a bunch of geeks playing in the sand who are trying to help you,\u201d Ewing said.<\/p>\n
Organizers say the festival will continue throughout the weekend until April 19, with additional 3NEWS coverage expected to highlight its impact on tourism and the local economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas SandFest 2026 begins under tough weather, with sculptors adapting and organizers planning around heavy winds and potential…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-255496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","10":"tag-corpus-christi-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}