One advantage of being forced to rest up whilst the rest of the family run frantically playing tag around the “garden” area of the holiday home we have hired for a special extended family long weekend is that I have time to read some of the brochures in the house.
These are informational brochures in a folder, advertising various business and events in the area.
One of the pictures in the brochure is of a sand sculpture, something I really enjoy looking at so I was quick to zoom in and take a closer look.
The “Veluws Zandsculpturenfestijn” (Veluwe Sand Sculpture Festival) takes place annually in Garderen, a small village in the Veluwe.
Artists who specialise in sand sculpture come here from from all of the world to create some truly amazing indoor and outdoor sand sculptures.
Between mid-April and the end of October this place becomes the site of the Sand Sculpture Garden and every year there is a new theme.
The theme for 2014 was “Experience the Golden Age.” which documents the history of the Netherlands in the seventeenth century. It’s the time of Rembrandt, Michiel de Ruyter and the VOC (Dutch East India Company) all of which were hugely influential in the Netherlands and broad. Every aspect of this is depicted in amazing detail in sand.
Although of course the 2014 festival is long over, work is currently in progress because the new exhibition for 2015 opens April 17th 2015 with the theme “From Grandmother’s Time”.
The “Puzzle”section of the exhibition will be a continuing attraction this year as it was last (more about that in a post soonest).
The Dutch website promises the new festival will feature sculptures of Vincent van Gogh, Ot and Sien, the World Wars and liberation, the 1953 flood, important events in sports and politics, changes in technology and much more.”
We figure out that we had time to come and visit the exhibition on the last day of our long weekend, before we come home, if we leave early enough.
It’s a short detour our of our route home but Our Lady of The Tom Tom leads the way and soon we spot the gates…
… I will tell you in advance that I’m starting with the non-sand sculptures and some other things around the entrance because the festival was about far more than just the sand sculptures.
Veluws Zandsculpturenfestijn
Adresse: oude barnevelderweg 5, Garderen, Niederlande
Telefon:+31 577 461 294
The following wall plaque says: “In this house… We live, , we have pleasure / are happy, we have arguments, we say sorry, we make mistakes, we speak the truth, we give cuddles / hugs, we have love, we are a family, this is home”
In another section, paintings fit the Golden Age theme…
http://zandsculpturen.nl/ (Dutch and German Language only)
http://nederlandvakantieland.net/gelderland/dagje-uit-op-de-veluwe-het-zandsculpturenfestijn-in-garderen/ (Dutch language only)