Another successful Driftwood and Sands

Overall, the event went well with over 60 entries. The beach was alive with people viewing the works in progress, talking to the artists and taking photos.

We had a few exciting moments with wind gusts taking down most of our flags at one point, and waves breaking over the beach in the middle of the day during a king tide. It was quite a spectacular sight, we expected sculptures to be washed away, but only a few were threatened.

Our guest judge was Lyttleton sculptor Mark Whyte, who got to know the beach well and enjoyed being part of the event. Festival founder, Donald Buglass built an enormous camera overlooking the beach (a SLR 500, he tells us), and being well anchored and constructed, it will be there for some time to come (tides-willing). Our new branded gazebo looked fabulous, and worked well, a good investment for future years. Thanks to the Council for improving the beach accessways, crucial for artists and visitors to get safely onto the beach. Sunset Point was ‘well-groomed’ the public toilets were always clean, giving a great impression of our town.