PORT ANGELES — What happened to Arts in Action and the sand sculpture contest?
Nor’wester Rotary’s annual arts and crafts festival, which has been held for years on the last weekend in July, has been postponed to the first weekend in September.
The three-day festival on and around the City Pier parking lot, as well as the Windermere Sand Sculpture on Hollywood Beach, will begin Friday, Sept. 5, and be held in conjunction with sprint boat races at the Extreme Sports Park, said Steve Zenovic of Nor’wester Rotary.
“For years, we have watched as the month of July had more and more events,” Zenovic said.
“Right now, we are having to compete with three or four arts and crafts festivals the same weekend as ours.
“By moving to the last part of the season, we will be able to attract a larger pool of area artisans and a better event to our community,” he said, adding that organizers hoped to attract people who had not had the chance to attend because of summer vacations.
This year, the arts and crafts festival will feature the sprint boats on display in addition to the Porsche Club car show.
Also this year, the sand sculpture contest will feature a stronger thrust to encourage local teams of six to 20 amateurs to challenge themselves and their competitors to create masterpieces after learning techniques from a world master sand sculptor.
Three teams are currently registered.
This will be the third exhibition of the Merrill Ring team and the second for the Phoenix Dragon Martial Arts School.
“We’re getting excited and starting to talk about what we want to do this year,” said Norm Schaaf, vice president of Merrill Ring.
“It’s a lot of fun, and we’re looking forward to it.”
Teams can register and get more information by phoning Zenovic & Associates at 360-417-0501.
The sand sculpture element was added to the festival 15 years ago with a single display sculpture.
This year, there will be three display sculptures: one in front of the Windermere office on East Front Street, one at the festival in the center of the artisans and one at the Extreme Sports Park — each a display work done by world master sand sculptors Sue McGrew and Sandis Kondrats.
McGrew, who is from Tacoma, has been featured on two sand sculpture reality shows and is currently being seen in the “Sand Masters” television show.
Kondrats operates a sand sculpture events company in Latvia and recently co-authored a book of anatomy for sculptors.
Both have competed and won in Port Angeles in earlier contests.
In the United States, they operate a company called SandisSue that organizes and participates in sculpting events nationwide.
