We went to see all the great sandcastle. WOW, they had a great turn out. Tons and tons of people. The builder had 5 hours to build there sand sculpture. That's not long at all. There was a lot of Galveston police directing traffic, riding ATV's watch the crowd of people. (Thanks, for all you do everyday) There was plenty of port-a-potties to use(ughh, gross)but a necessity. There was also some trucks for water, snow cones and snacks. I will be adding a lot of great photos, so bare with me. So many of them are just incredible. Not sure how they build these but kudos to all! I was not able to check in on this page; even though we were there I kept getting a message that I was to far away to check in. I have been getting that a lot lately. I was able to check in on the East Beach page though. So I did. We had a great time and will probably come again. read more

See all

We've been in the past years and it's been fine because it was free to go check out the sandcastles but this year it's one of the first years they had the event all gated and charged $10 for people to attend, plus $15 parking, even after 5pm when the sandcastle awards are given and it's pretty much over. The event website said it was an all weekend event, and Saturday it would run until 9pm with music and vendors, etc.... Trying to check out the sandcastles after 5pm is a hassle because most teams are packing up, there's trucks driving in and out, people loading and carrying things out. So it's not even safe for kids and families to be walking around trying to check out the sandcastles. Most people were heading out around 5pm. And yeah they had a band playing but it wasn't like a festival feel because a big majority of the people were packing up and leaving. Then the vendors were packing up too, so by 8pm a lot of the vendors were closed. The band stopped playing and they just had DJ music while people continued packing and loading up all the crates and whatever they used for the sandcastle building. So a total rip off that they charted after 5pm. NOT A FESTIVAL AFTER 5pm!! Won't be returning next year if they charge again for a "festival"! read more

Galveston Sandcastle Competition 2013 It seemed like a repeat of last year to me, but with different sand art sculptures. But it is an inspiration (hence the following song) to build better castles while stocking up on vitamin D from sunshine and eating deep fried food. To the dedicated-to-fun participants (64 this year), I give you this parody: "I Left My Art in Sand and Crisco" (imagine Tony Bennett singing this) The loveliness of bare us seems somehow sad today The glory from beer foam is of another day I've been terribly on loan and forgotten in white satin I'm going home to Galveston on the Bay I left my art In sand and Crisco, High on fried food, It calls to me, To be where teams skip the biker bars To build castles to the stars The slight Gulf breeze Won't chill my chair, I don't care My judge waits there In sand and disco In love with brew And his RV When I come home to you, Houston Sysco Your warehouse food ... will fry ... for me read more

The 2016 contest was pretty much the worst organized event I have ever been to and I've been to many. Keep in mind that many people who go to this event are NOT from Galveston so while some locals might say "well gee, all you had to do was go down that one street and park on that one beach and then walk and you would have made it no problem", for people coming from Houston or further, it was hell to get to the event. Anyway, the event is at East Beach and from what I've been told, usually there is a free parking area and then you pay $15 to go to the beach but for this event, it was $15 to park in the good lot and then there was free parking supposedly, but it was all a moot point because the lots were full and the cops were directing people to turn around and go to Stewart Beach so they could have the privilege of paying $15 there and then waiting an hour and a half for a shuttle to take them. That is of course if you know where the two beaches are. I usually just go around the Pleasure Pier to hang out for an hour or downtown so I had only heard of East Beach and never been so I followed the map on the facebook page and it was actually the map to Stewart Beach and when I saw the absolute zoo that was on the street and the traffic cops which were making things worse, decided to go more east and then walk back. To be fair, the traffic and shuttle is handled by the city but from the point of the view of someone attending, it doesn't really matter and I'm just giving my experience of the whole event. As my dumb luck would have it, I actually was in the middle of Stewart Beach and East Beach and had to ask some life guards where things were and kept on walking east on the beach in 90+ heat for about an hour to find it. I did not find one single sign to show where to go, not one volunteer or corporate sponsor and it was only the goodness of strangers who pointed me to the right direction and said that everybody else was asking them the same questions. Once I finally got there, I was expecting things I'd expect in other festivals or competitions - you know, food and drink vendors, maybe some shade, cooling areas, etc. I saw one tent that said "private party" in it and the other tent with food was for the teams that were there. There was one Budweiser stand and one shaved ice stand. I had a couple of bottles of water with me but in the hour long hike, had already gone through it so that was gone and I was overheating and had a cut on my toe so I just wanted to sit down somewhere but there was nowhere to go. The only people who took some pity on me were the people at the first aid station who had emergency bottles of water and the Monster Energy people. Normally I stay the hell away from energy drinks but when faced with dehydration and raising my blood pressure and getting diabetes, I chose diabetes. To be fair, it turns out there is a Pavilion north of the beach where you can rent umbrellas and water (yes, you're renting that water in the heat). Oh yeah, the Sandcastle competition. There were 3 or 4 good ones, but the rest quite honestly not all that great - certainly not worth the hassle. I probably won't go back unless they make this right and organize it better next year. Again to be fair, this is an event in May and this year it got postponed to August so that may have something to do with it but even the people who were there were saying that the previous years were better. Fortunately, my Galveston friend who usually comes after it's all done came there and picked me up to take me to my car so I didn't have the death march on the way back, but wow, just wow, you guys need to get your act together. read more