20th anniversary of the popular event features live music, fireworks, and “New England’s largest Ferris wheel”
Revere, Mass – The shoreline of Massachusetts’ North Shore region once hosted a major amusement park with a white, wooden roller coaster, an arcade, and a carousel. From 1898 to 1978, America’s first public beach in the city of Revere was a true destination.
To ensure Revere Beach doesn’t become mere history, the Revere Beach Partnership is working to reestablish the beach as a community hub and to restore it to “its former glory.”
One way it does this is by organizing its largest annual event, the Revere Beach International Sand Sculpting Festival.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the wildly popular fete. Set for July 19 to 21, the event will host 75 food trucks and vendors, exhibitors, a beer garden and amusement rides, including “New England’s largest Ferris wheel,” according to Revere Beach Partnership Executive Director Adam Benoit. The Partnership’s website claims the festival is the “largest free event in Massachusetts” with “hundreds of thousands of people” expected to attend.
Saturday, July 20 is the biggest day of the festival with the awards ceremony and “Fireworks Extravaganza” as event headliners. There will be more musical artists, including the Camelia Latin Dance Quartet and Carribean Vibes. Prior to the fireworks, festival goers can attend the “Golden Hour Birthday Bash” with the purchase of a ticket.
The International Festival attracts master sculptors from over five different states and countries with several from the Netherlands and Canada, according to Revere Beach Partnership President Kristen Karshis.
Three hundred tons of sand dropped on Revere Beach last Thursday and work on the centerpiece began. Although the official theme of the festival has not been released, as of this writing, the centerpiece sand sculpture will showcase the most popular festival themes throughout the last 20 years, said Benoit.
Greg J. Grady Jr. is a second-generation sand sculptor competing in the Revere Beach contest. He said he enjoys competing in Revere because it’s his local beach and it has some of the best sand.
“Sand is one of these artforms that really just wows the crowd,” Grady shared. His father, Greg J Grady Sr., founded the sand sculpting festival at Hampton Beach.
Grady hopes to “defy gravity” and “knock it out of the park” with his Revere sculpture—and all of his sculptures. To narrow down sculpture ideas, he is sketching a piece called “The Dice of Destiny,” but he said the beach and the sand determine the true evolution of the sculpture.
Growing up, Grady walked Revere Beach with his grandfather who told stories about the old beach. “And to be part of that coming back is pretty exciting,” he said. “It’s really putting Revere back on the map and bringing people together,” said Grady.
Revere Beach International Sand Sculpting Competition, July 19-21, 2024, on Revere Beach in Revere, Mass. Check out all event details (except, weirdly, how to get there by public transportation, but just go to the Revere Beach stop on the Blue Line T and follow the crowd noise to the festival) on the International Sand Sculpting Competition website: internationalsandsculptingfestival.com.
This article was produced for HorizonMass, the independent, student-driven, news outlet of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, and is syndicated by BINJ’s MassWire news service.
Madison Lucchesi (she/her) is a HorizonMass reporter. She is a journalism student at Emerson College with a minor in history. She enjoys business, travel, and memoir writing, to name a few. From Revere, Mass., she considers herself an unofficial Greater Boston tour guide.
