Imperial Beach is a charming town that turns on the charm for the annual U.S. Open
Sandcastle Competition. Are you thinking of doing something fun this summer?
Why not join around 300,000 people who make their way to just north of the
U.S. / Mexico border for the annual event that folks around the globe know
about--the huge U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition.
What Imperial Beach, the laid back beach town, lacks in hotel rooms,
it makes up for in nearby accommodations in Coronado, Chula Vista, and San
Diego. So book your family a room and make this event part of your summer of
fun. Saturday's event typically include a street fair (Seacoast Drive,
the main street of town) is shut down for this festival. Food, top
bands, vendors, games, and the afternoon Kids-N-Kastles Competition are held
Saturday. The fun continues on Sunday (usually held one weekend in July)
with the big U.S. Open tournament that invites to sand sculptors with their
teams that compete for big bucks. Prize earnings or purse is around $21,000
or more.
Championships pit the top professional sand carvers against each other to
claim the Master's Champion title. On Sunday around 8:30 a.m. the tough
competition gets started. What looks like just sand evolves in hours of
spraying and shaping into masterful productions. Professional and
amateur sand carving teams throughout the U.S. will compete in the
sandcastle building. Creativity is one of the necessities in pleasing the
audience and judges, who partially base their decisions on looks of the
structure. The weekend celebration culminates in the awards ceremony
presentation of prizes after 1:30 p.m. and the party is usually over by
around 4 p.m., due to tides washing away many creations. How sad! You know
what they say about building castles in the sand! Updated information is
available on usopensandcastle.com
