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Sandcastles in the Sky
Last Sunday, Torontoist trekked to Woodbine Beach for a sandcastle-building extravaganza hosted by Art Attack!, the arts themed division of the Toronto Public Space Committee. The event was free, and open to anyone who wanted to participate. Liam O’Doherty, the event’s organizer, told us that the purpose of the event was “to bring strangers together” and “have as much fun as possible.”
By late afternoon, more than thirty people were diligently working together on at least twenty different projects, including castles, moats, walls, cities, pyramids, the Sphinx, a nuclear power plant (sand cities need to get their power from somewhere), and even a giant butterfly. “We made a butterfly, because we had an accident when we tried to make a castle,” explained Laura, the butterfly’s chief architect. Torontoist even pitched in and built a sand city, complete with roads, walls, an orchard, and a farm. We briefly considered building a Toronto landmark like the CN Tower or the Rogers Centre, but any recognizable building was well beyond our meagre sculpting skills.
“This kind of event is great,” explained O’Doherty. “There isn’t any cost to participate; sand is free and readily available. Usually, you just walk over this, but now it’s a medium for art…sandcastle building puts adults back into the mindset of children, where anything can be fun. We’ll definitely be doing something like this in the future. I’d like to make it an annual event.”
All photos by Stephen Michalowicz/Torontoist.