CLEARWATER BEACH — For many Pinellas County residents and visitors, springtime means three things: sun, sports and sand.
This year, the Pier 60 Sugar Sand Festival will incorporate those spring essentials in one place.
The 12th edition of the Clearwater Beach sand-sculpting event, which runs Friday, March 27, through Sunday, April 12, will feature a theme of “United in Sand: Celebrating Sports and Spirit” that will see 18 world-class master sculptors etch their unique works into the sugary soft sand under a 24,000-square-foot tent.
According to Pier 60 Concessions owner and festival founder Lisa Chandler, organizers are hoping for a big boost in visitors this year thanks to the theme, the brutal winter up north and the upcoming holiday weekend.
“We’re really hopeful this year is going to be spectacular,” Chandler said March 23, noting the second weekend of the festival coincides with Easter.
“So, we’re hoping to capitalize on all the visitors who planned their vacation around the Easter holiday, and we’re expecting to see big crowds this year.”
Chandler hopes the exhibit, housed under the massive, wider structure and featuring baseball, football, wrestling, surfing, and gymnastics, will do more than entertain. Tying into the nation’s 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, she said, it aims to inform as well.
“We expanded the augmented reality projection mapping room because it was so well received last year, and we added a four-minute video at the end that tells the history of the signing of the Declaration of Independence,” she said of the area that utilizes modern technology to project colorful images on the sand.
“So, my hope is that visitors will walk away having learned something new about that part of our history.”
In addition to the exhibit under the tent, which costs $16 to enter, the 2026 Sugar Sand Fest has plenty of free activities and amenities surrounding the structure, including eight concerts, four firework shows, a Salsa and Bachata Sunday, a county music weekend, sand sculpting classes, beach yoga, a VW car show and more.
“We have a lot of different free activities for everyone,” Chandler said, adding they have a big grand finale planned for the last Sunday of the festival to cap the 17-day event “with a bang.”
According to veteran master sculptor Dan Belcher, a St. Louis native who said he has participated in every Sugar Sand Fest since it started in 2013, the Clearwater Beach event is always filed under must-attend.
“It’s always been a spectacular event,” Belcher said as he continued to carve his baseball-themed piece near the entrance to the exhibit four days before the start of the festival, noting he is one of two artists who has attended every Sugar Sand Fest.
“The sand here is lovely and wonderful to carve, and Lisa and the organizers treat us so well,” he said.
“They put on a great event, and we want to do our best to showcase our talent for everyone.”
