Ten years ago, Kuwait held the largest sand sculpture festival in the world, the Remal International Festival (@remalfest). The festival took place at the Kuwait International Fairgrounds and covered an area equivalent to six football fields. Now a decade later, Damon Langlois, the creative director behind the project is releasing a book called “Stories in Sand” that documents his experience.
Damon was a five-time world champion and Guinness World Record holder for the tallest sand castle before getting hired to come to Kuwait and lead the project that would be based around the Arabian Nights. He spent over seven months researching and designing the scenes before bringing together 72 of the world’s best sand artists to reimagine the stories from 1001 Nights.
The sculpture park was constructed out of only sand and water, it was a major artistic feat, and extremely risky. The artists were all reminded of this when the park was destroyed by a devastating three-day storm halfway through the build. At the time, it was the worst storm to hit Kuwait in over 50 years.
I remember reading that “some” sculptures had been damaged, but now I realized how bad it really was. The destruction caused Damon and his team to feel defeated after all the hard work had been washed away. But, they were able to recover and complete the project, and the park eventually opened in January 2014 before closing 4 months later in April.
Damon’s book “Stories in Sand”, is part art and part storybook. The initial print run is set at only 260 books and contains 276 pages filled with behind the scenes and final creation photos and stories. There are limited copies of the book so if you want one you need to act fast. I’m assuming they will get sold out quickly after this post which is why I already ordered my copy. The book doesn’t ship to Kuwait directly so I had to put my Shop&Ship address instead.
If you want to pre-order a copy, here is the link to the Kickstarter.
For my old posts on the Remal Festival, click here.
7 replies on “BTS: The Largest Sand Sculpture Festival Ever”
I have distinct memories of visiting this event and took several pictures.
Indeed a work of art!
Talk about blast from the past!
Thanks for sharing. Had the opportunity to check it out back then and it was definitely something.
On another note, no thanks for reminding it has been 10 years since!
Is there any science in destroying it 4 months later?
well it was falling apart since it was just made of sand and water
https://248am.com/wp-content/gallery/sandpark/dsc03130.jpg
https://248am.com/wp-content/gallery/behindpark/dsc03133.jpg
https://248am.com/wp-content/gallery/behindpark/dsc03134.jpg
I actually remember seeing the site like this back in the day as my family and I drove by it.
It was made from sand but sprayed with some kind of glue which made it hard. That thing was there for so many years until they demolished it. The whole Proud 2 Be Kuwaiti exhibit was a novel idea until they abandoned the place.
Did the sand artists ever get satisfaction on the dispute over payment? I read that the festival did not get the expected number of visitors nor income, so the artists were stiffed on their final payment. True or unsubstantiated rumor?