“They’re Sandpeople all right. I can see one of them now”
So says a certain Luke Skywalker near the beginning of Star Wars, but I seriously doubt this is what he meant. “Sandworld” is the brainchild of two world-class sand sculptors from Weymouth on England’s south coast – Mark Anderson and David Hicks. Mark runs the Weymouth sea front exhibition – after taking over from his grandfather and mentor Fred Darrington – which has been going for over 90 years, enchanting visitors with amazing sand creations. David caught the sand sculpting bug after visiting his friend Mark at a competition in 2005.
Together they have worked with some of the best sand sculptors in the world, and they were inspired to build a showcase of all of that talent for everyone to enjoy. After a couple of years of planning and searching for a place to build their Sandworld, it took just 2 short months to build the structures and ferry in the 75 truck loads of sand needed from Weymouth’s beaches – apparently it’s some of the best sand in the world for sculpting. 2011 saw them open to the public for the first time and just this weekend the 2013 season started with an incredible Science fiction themed sand sculpture exhibition opened by Brian Muir – the man who sculpted the original iconic Darth Vader helmet – helped out by members of the Dorset Troopers.
A giant sand recreation of the helmet greats visitors as they enter the exhibition, and there are further scenes featuring Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie, another with Artoo and Threepio, Jabba points the way to the cafe and the second Death Star hovers above them all. The exhibition also features amazing recreations of characters from many other sci-fi franchises, including one of Kirk and Spock towering over the Enterprise, a special 50th anniversary Doctor Who scene (although there may be a slight problem with that one), a Gieger Xenomorph from Alien, Ben 10 and his aliens, as well as Jurassic Park, Thunderbirds, Superman, Metropolis and some Jules Verne, all created by the best sand sculptors in the world.
The exhibition is running until November at Sandworld in Weymouth – I just hope the sculptures will last that long! For more photos, check out the Sandworld website and their Facebook page, or if you have the stomach to visit the Daily Mail, then they have a load of great photos from the opening day.
