It is already this Saturday, by 10 pm, in Armação de Pêra, in the Algarve, that the International Sand Sculptures Festival will take place.

It is the second year in a row that FIESA 2004 organises this event which will open its doors to the public with a show by the acoustic guitar duet, Las Guitarras Locas, which mix Latin sounds with influences from the Blues, Flamenco and Jazz and who will perform around 9.30 pm, on the stage located at the centre of the Festival.

Two months were necessary to sculpt the twenty five thousand tons of sand distributed by 15.000m2, which were transformed into legends and fairy tales by a group of international artists specialised in sand sculpture. Due to the amount of sculpted sand, this is considered the biggest Sand Sculptures Festival in the world.

Under the theme Enchanted Stories, about one hundred thousand visitors are expected during the whole summer at this event which will be open to the public until the 22nd September. Children’s tales like Cinderella, the La Fontaine fables and legendary and mythological scenes will be recreated by the hands of these artists.

A varied set of concerts and shows under various forms of artistic expression, daily sand sculptures workshops for adults and children, to take place from 10 am to 12.30 pm and from 3 to 6.30 pm, under the guidance of a sculptor with pedagogical training, are among the other activities presented by FIESA 2004 for the next summer. On the 29th May, a party which will be extended into the night, organised by FIESA, will be animated by some of the best known House Music DJs.