MANITOWOC – The Wisconsin Sand Sculpting Festival returned to Manitowoc for its third year and turned out masterpieces such as a dragon with its eggs, a small gnome village emerging from a book, and multitudes of creatures both real and imaginary.
“Our third annual Wisconsin Sand Sculpting Festival was another huge success,” Tourism Director Courtney Hansen said. “I couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out.”
Despite not having concrete attendance numbers for the July 19-20 event, Hansen said she estimates thousands of spectators attended each day watching the creation of the sand sculptures, indulging in concessions from the Knights of Columbus and visiting each vendor.
Hansen said she believes having no admission fee this year enabled more families to attend.
“We saw so many more families this year,” Hansen said. “As a new mom, that makes me really happy to see. We want all of our events in the city to be family friendly for residents and also visitors.”
Read more: Manitowoc readers sound off on ways to boost tourism, from fixing roads to moving Visitor Center
Winners announced in both semi-pro and amateur sand sculpting competitions at Wisconsin Sand Sculpting Festival.
The semi-pro sand sculpting competition was the centerpiece of the two-day festival. From the six competitors, the winners of the People’s Choice Award was “Hatching Dragons” by John Kruse and the Sculptor’s Choice Award was “Lost in a Book” by Gina Diliberti.
The judges of the competition awarded first place to “Us and Them” by Josh Jakubowski, second place to Kruse and third place to Diliberti.
In the amateur sand sculpting competition, prizes were awarded to those competing solo and those competing in groups.
Read more: Taking a trip on the SS Badger? Here’s our list of things to do in Manitowoc and Ludington
For the sculptures created by a group, first place went to the sculpture titled “Who Buried Toothless,” second place went to “Wild Nile” and third place went to “Good Eats.”
For the sculpture created by a single person, first place was awarded to Ryan Metzner, second to Josiah Woelfel and third to Rebecca Struck.
Alisa M. Schafer is a reporter for the Herald Times Reporter in Manitowoc. She can be reached by email at aschafer@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Wisconsin Sand Sculpting Festival: Who were winners? What was turnout?
