{"id":40799,"date":"2025-07-27T09:32:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T09:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/40799\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T09:32:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T09:32:27","slug":"a-behind-the-scenes-look-at-how-the-incredible-revere-beach-sand-sculptures-are-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/40799\/","title":{"rendered":"A behind-the-scenes look at how the incredible Revere Beach sand sculptures are made"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ndricim<\/a>Ndricim “Jimmy” Bejko works on his sculpture at last year’s Revere International Sand Sculpting Festival. (Joseph Prezioso\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note:\u00a0This is an excerpt from WBUR’s Saturday morning newsletter, The Weekender. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox,\u00a0sign up here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve ever strolled along Revere Beach during its annual sand sculpture festival, those tall, elaborate works of sand-based art may leave you with a question, or two.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you go so high?”<\/p>\n

“How does it hold together?”<\/p>\n

“What happens when it rains?”<\/p>\n

“Those are the main questions that we get over and over,\u201d said Melineige Beauregard, a longtime sand sculptor who has won first place in Revere, most recently in 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Field Guide to Boston: Discover \u2014 and rediscover \u2014 your Boston.<\/a><\/p>\n

For the last four years, Beauregard and her husband, Chris Guinto, have helped organize the Revere Beach International Sand Sculpting Festival. Now in its 21st year, the contest is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of curious visitors this weekend. However, artists have a limited amount of time to create their sculptures, which means \u201cwe don\u2019t have a lot of time\u201d to answer questions, according to Ndricim \u201cJimmy\u201d Bejko, a returning competitor this year.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I caught up with Bejko and Beauregard ahead of this weekend\u2019s beachfront hustle and bustle to get some answers to the questions sand sculptors often receive.<\/p>\n

What goes into making a winning sand sculpture?<\/p>\n

First and foremost, you probably need serious sculpting experience.<\/p>\n

Bejko, who lives in East Boston, began sculpting clay at the age of 7. He got a fine arts degree in monumental sculpture<\/a> in his native Albania and has worked as a professional sculptor in Woburn<\/a> for nearly 20 years. Beauregard has also been sculpting for more than two decades. She says she started with snow and ice sculptures growing up in the Quebec area with her dad, who is also a sculptor.<\/p>\n

These sculptors don\u2019t use just any kind of sand, either.<\/p>\n

Instead of the sand on Revere Beach, which has soft grains that have been rounded by the tide, the contest supplies its sculptors with a fine, slightly rougher sand from a quarry. These sand grains are \u201cmore square\u201d with lots of silt, and can better hold together a vertical sculpture with precise cuts through it, said Beauregard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like stacking a bunch of marbles or a bunch of cubes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Beauregard'sBeauregard’s sculpture that won first place in 2019. (Courtesy of Melineige Beauregard)<\/p>\n

To carve the sand, sculptors use trowels, shovels, knives, and oil painting spatulas.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they should be sharp \u2014 very sharp,\u201d said Bejko.<\/p>\n

Sharp tools help with precision, which Bejko says is necessary when working with such a fragile material. Unlike clay, it\u2019s hard to add sand back onto a sculpture if you make a mistake and a piece falls off, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery step you carve, every moment, you should be 100% focused on comparing the volume. You must imagine the weight,\u201d Bejko said. \u201c\u200aIt’s a beautiful material to work, but very, very, very challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are also elements that are out of the artists\u2019 control \u2014 specifically weather, like rain. But the sculptors have a trick up their sleeves. It\u2019s common practice to frequently spray a mixture of wood glue and water over sand sculptures to help them withstand the rain. That\u2019s why a light shower won\u2019t wash them away like your average sand castle. \u201cBut if there is a strong storm, you cannot do anything about it,\u201d said Bejko.<\/p>\n

A look at the 2025 competition<\/p>\n

During the festival, competitors have between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday to construct their sculptures. This year\u2019s theme is \u201cAmerica 250\u201d in honor of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. There will be 16 sculptures, including a large centerpiece depicting Paul Revere\u2019s midnight ride. (Revere Beach also has its own foothold in American history as the country\u2019s first recognized public beach.)<\/p>\n

As an organizer, Beauregard won\u2019t be competing, but Bejko will. He\u2019s hoping to impress visitors with his piece, \u201cThe Power of Beauty,\u201d which he says will \u201cappear 2D\u201d to the viewer. He\u2019s hoping he won\u2019t run into the same problems he had during his first time competing, which was last year.<\/p>\n

\"Bejko'sBejko’s 2024 sculpture, “Let’s Take a Selfie”, before and after the arm fell. (Courtesy of Jimmy Bejko)<\/p>\n

Before the 2024 competition, Bejko made a mockup of his sculpture, \u201cLet\u2019s Take a Selfie,\u201d with clay. It featured a woman with a phone in one hand, taking a selfie with an octopus on her head. But when he started sculpting it with sand, \u201cthe arm fell,\u201d said Bejko.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sand dried too much,\u201d said Bejko. He chalked up the accident to lack of experience, and ended up producing a modified version of the sculpture. \u201cThis year I’m gonna do better,\u201d said Bejko. \u201cI hope I\u2019m gonna do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

P.S. \u2014 There will be a people\u2019s choice vote on the sculptures from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. The winners will be crowned at 6 p.m., when they\u2019ll also receive their prize money. The entire event runs from Friday through Sunday, rain or shine. Click here for more information<\/a> about the festival’s amusements, fireworks and food.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ndricim “Jimmy” Bejko works on his sculpture at last year’s Revere International Sand Sculpting Festival. (Joseph Prezioso\/AFP via…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-40799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}