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This year large sand sculptures in Jelgava will honor the most ambitious achievements of Latvians, including Mark Rothko’s art, “Minox” camera, crocodile Dandy prototype, world’s first hologram, “Levi’s” jeans, Kristaps Porziņģis’s success and others. Continuing the format started last year, also this year the largest sand sculpture park in the Baltics will be open to Jelgava residents and guests from June 19 throughout the summer.

“The idea has great power. The theme “Latvians in the world – from idea to legend” has been chosen to tell about legends, significant historical and modern events “, say the organizers.

Also this year, the author and manager of the park’s artistic concept is one of the most titled sculptors in the world, Kārlis Īle, who together with six artists from Latvia will create an amazing world of sand art in Jelgava. The artists will start working on the sculptures on June 2.

Honoring the significant achievements of Latvians, this year the park will feature some of the largest sand sculptures made in Jelgava so far. The biggest and also the highest work of art will be a demo sculpture, which will be more than 6 meters wide and 6 meters high, depicting basketball player Kristaps Porziņģis. Also in the sand sculpture park this year we will meet such legends and inventions as the camera “Minox” created by Walter Capa, the prototype of Crocodile Dandy Arvids Blumentals, “Porsche” created by Anatols Lapins, the author of Marilyn Monroe, Dali and Albert Einstein portraits Filips Halsmans, Anna Kopčovska – the first woman travelled around the world by bike, the world’s first hologram created by Juris Upatnieks, Mark Rothko, the owner of the tobacco pipe construction patent Kārlis Pētersons and others. In addition to historical events not included in the sculptures, the park territory will be supplemented with various tablets and photo objects that will tell about Latvian achievements in the world.

The park will be open all summer from 19 June. After the opening of the park, the artists will continue to work on supplementing it with new sculptural wonders, allowing every Jelgava resident and city guest to look into the process of creating sand art.

At the very beginning, when the festival took place in Uzvaras Park, more than 400 tons of sand were used to create the sculptures every year. As the festival grew, in 2015 it moved to Pasta Island, where a 75 x 50 meter wide sand park was created from more than 900 tons of sand. Today, more than 1,200 tons of sand are used to create sculptures every year.

More about sand sculptures – www.jelgava.lv and www.festivali.jelgava.lv. The international sand sculpture park is created by the city of Jelgava and the institution “Kultūra”, supported by Ramirent LTD.