$30M Pier 60 Sugar Sand Festival Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Screenshot from Instagram. Photo by pier60sugarsand | Instagram

*Uncovering Florida is in no way affiliated with Pier 60 Sugar Sand Festival and receives no revenue from visitor purchases.*

Sand, music, dancing, games, fireworks, and more sand! These are some of the highlights that Pier 60’s annual Sugar Sand Festival offers when it returns to Clearwater Beach this March 29th to April 14th. This 17-day event is expected to draw in 200,000 visitors and have about a $30,000,000 impact on the local economy.
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From this festival, you can expect activities and vendors of all kinds, including a cornhole tournament on March 30th, dance lessons followed by a dance party on April 14th, daily refreshments, artisans, and other amusements. Some activities will also be free, such as daily live entertainment with concerts and buskers, sculpting demonstrations on the weekends, Spectrum fireworks on all three Saturdays and the last Sunday of the festival, daily sand sculpting classes, a beach clean up on April 7th, and a butterfly exhibit every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the festival. For a complete list of activities see the festival website here.

Photo of a free sand sculpting class from a previous year. Photo by Pier 60 Sugar Sand Festival | Sand Sculpting Classes

While all of those experiences draw visitors in, most people come for the main event: the Sugar Sand Walk Exhibit. Open from Sunday to Thursday from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm and Friday to Saturday from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm, the exhibit takes place in a 21,000 square-foot tent filled with sugar sand sculptures made by some of the world’s top sculptors. 

According to the festival website, 1,000 tons of sand from Clearwater Beach will be used to create the exhibit, and sculptures will be 95% complete on opening day with a purposeful 5% left incomplete for visitors to see how the artists work their magic with the sand. Attendees will also get the opportunity to participate in the “People’s Choice Award”, which allows them to vote on the theme for the 2025 Pier 60 Sugar Sand Festival. 

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Sugar Sand Festival, this year’s theme is “Sands of Time”, which is inspired by the idea that time flies when you are having fun. The aim is to celebrate the past decade while also looking ahead into the next one. In honor of the theme, the master sand sculptors will be bringing back some of the most memorable sugar sand sculptures in the festival's history, in addition to some new pieces.
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Tickets for the Sugar Sand Walk Exhibit can be purchased in advance or onsite, and they cost $14 per person with admission for children under three years old being free. Additional discounts will be offered onsite only and on specific days for senior citizens above 60 years old and certain professions, including teachers, military personnel, and first responders. See additional details here.

Founded by Lisa Chandler, the concept of the Sugar Sand Walk Exhibit came 15 years prior to what has evolved into the Pier 60 Sugar Sand Festival of today. This event helps to raise money for the local community and also supports Lisa Chandler’s 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, Sunsets at Pier 60. This organization, founded on March 17, 1995, hosts a variety of events, but is primarily a free nightly celebration of the setting sun on Pier 60.

Check out the official festival website to buy tickets for any events that interest you. Additionally, you can be a part of this festival by volunteering. Anyone 15 years old and up is eligible to earn volunteer hours by helping out.

Article by Ema Tibbetts