The Sarasota area is a downtown protected by some barrier islands, including Longboat Key and City Island. I’d been to Sarasota several times but never to the third and southernmost of the islands, Siesta Key.
I had no idea what I was missing.
I couldn't have picked a better time to introduce myself to Siesta Key. It was the weekend of the Siesta Key Crystal Classic, the annual international sand-sculpting festival. Held around the same time each year in mid-November, the festival takes place on the broad, white, sandy beach at Siesta Key and features four days of live music, food and drink, market stalls with goods to buy and beautiful sand sculptures.
And those sculptures … I mean, I had no idea. In all my years in Florida I had never taken the opportunity to see a sand-sculpting contest. The artwork was beyond my modest expectations.
The sand sculptures at the Crystal Classic Sand Sculpting Festival on Siesta Key are illuminated at night. This piece, A Rose Without Thorns, won first prize in the Solo competition. Photo Credit: Tom Stieghorst
Supersized sand castles
I met Greg Grady Jr. and his father, Greg Sr., hard at work on their entry, "Building Bridges," about halfway through the competition. On one side, the 15-ton sculpture featured a set of sand cubes of various sizes, piled at odd angles in a stack. On the other side was a similar set of sand spheres. In between, still semi-formed, was the bridge that connected the two.
When I asked how the father-son team had conceived of such a high-minded concept, Greg Jr. shrugged it off. "We made a couple of sketches and just let it evolve," he said, adding that the judges would be looking for originality in awarding prizes.
I was impressed at how the sculptures held together. Grady said no adhesives are used, except as a fixative at the end. "The water is your glue," he said. "It's all in the sand quality, the compaction and the water."
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Nearby, Rick Mungeam was revising his entry "Let the Light In," which featured slit penetrations that hadn't held up. The sculpture now included a detailed cross with abstract circles and tiny fissures in some locations. An architect from Florida's Panhandle, Mungeam and his wife also have a company that offers sand castle-building lessons.
Matt Deibert at work on his sculpture Hand Me Down Genes, which won third place in the Tandem category at the 2021 Crystal Classic Sand Sculpting Festival on Siesta Key. Photo Credit: Tom Stieghorst
Historically, about 40,000 people pay the $10 fee to gain admission at some point during the four-day event. In addition to the eight solo and eight team entries in the professional categories, 20 or so amateurs are entered in a separate contest.
Amateur participants this year included retired Cleveland police officer Tom Bloom and his wife, Judy, who were working on a three-story castle with a penthouse tower and stairs curving up the sides. Bloom said he's come down from Cleveland for the contest several times. "It's worth every penny," he said.
We were encouraged to come back after dark to view the illuminations on the sculptures, and I was glad we did. The colored lights added a whole new dimension to the sculptures -- such as the giant rose bathed in cardinal red.
Siesta Key, beyond the beach
As for Siesta Key beyond the beach, I liked that a lot, too. There are plenty of interesting-looking accommodations. My wife and I were hosted at the Siesta Key Beachside Villas, a compound of one-story, concrete-block buildings with a pool, hammocks, a large tiki hut and grills. Our 1-BR villa had a complete kitchen and lots of beach amenities: chairs, towels, a cooler and wagons to haul gear a block or two to the sand.
We were a 30-second walk from the Siesta Key main drag, Ocean Boulevard, which bisects four or five blocks of shops, restaurants and bars known as Siesta Village. My wife looked up an old high school friend who owns a pizza parlor along the street, and we enjoyed sitting at the bar overlooking the sidewalk, munching slices and watching the passing parade.
Long and narrow in shape, Siesta Key has only a few main roads so the traffic can slow to a crawl on weekends. There is a free shuttle trolley, however, that serves the length of the key.