Sand & Art Festival, Goa - India

2011 Goa Sand Art Festival Entrance

GOA..a tiny but beautiful state in India. It was ruled by the Portuguese for more than 400 years. People around the world know Goa for its friendly people, beautiful beaches, Portuguese architecture, impressive churches and temples, delicious mangoes, cashew nuts, feni ( a local liquor made from cashew and coconut) and the famous pork sausages amongst other things.

View Goa -- India in a larger map

For the last 3 years, Sand Cult - a Sand Sculpting Company in association with Goa Tourism, have been organizing the Annual Sand Art Festival on one of Goa's popular beaches. This year (2012), the event will be held on the Miramar Beach (near Panjim the capital city of Goa). It is a stupendous work of art! It is amazing to see the finished product from a huge mound of sand.

If you are visiting Goa this December anytime after the 13th, you don't want to miss out on this event. Entrance is free. Enjoy a picnic with the family or just have fun watching the artists sculpt. Miramar is situated about 3 kms from Panaji, on the way to Dona Paula along the "Marine Drive".

Below are some of the pictures I managed to capture during the 2011 event. With just a couple of tools, water, gifted hands and their amazing talent, they did a fantastic job that had the young and the old, all making their way to enjoy the sand sculptures. The 2011 theme was " Marine Life: Unseen Treasures under water ".

One of the artists sculpting

An octopus? underwater sea creature

Sand Art

Sea creature maybe a walrus

The silhouette of castle spires at sunset.

Sand Art

Sand Art

Sand Art

The curious crowd viewing the scuptures

Mermaid Sand Art Goa

The Castle

Sand Art

Sand Art

The complete picture!

Beautiful Sand scupture

Enjoy a gorgeous sunset at Miramar Beach

For more information on Goa visit : http://goatourism.gov.in/

Find Sand Cult on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandcult

Goa Sand Art Festival Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/goasandartfestival?fref=ts

For more sand sculpting events around the world: http://sandsculptingevents.com/
UK: http://www.sandworld.co.uk/visit.html
Florida 2013: http://www.artofsand.org/
Florida: http://www.sandbash.com/
India: http://www.sandindia.com/home.html
Australia: http://www.visitmelbourne.com/regions/Mornington-Peninsula/Events/Art-and-culture/Sand-Sculpting-Australia-Frankston-Waterfront.aspx
North America: http://www.neptunefestival.com/events/north-american-sandsculpting-championship/14

Any questions? Just email me at savsmichblog@gmail.com and I would be more than happy to reply to you.