The Antalya Sand Sculpture Museum, one of Antalya's significant cultural and artistic events, kicked off its 2024 season with the theme of "Space Adventure" on Lara Beach. Within the festival area, there are 200 sculptures made from 10,000 tons of river sand.

Held on the globally renowned Lara Beach, covering an area of approximately 7,000 square meters, the Antalya Sand Sculpture Museum exhibits sand sculptures created by professional sand sculptors from various countries worldwide, with a different theme each year. This year, it opened with the theme "Space Adventure," featuring 200 space-themed sand sculptures crafted by 25 sand sculptors using 10,000 tons of river sand, attracting both local and foreign tourists.

The festival coordinator, Cem Karaca, noted that they have made the event open year-round in recent years: "This year, we made a slight change. Previously, sculpture production lasted for 20 days every April. Starting this year, considering the requests from our visitors, we commenced sculpture production on May 15 and will continue until the end of June. We will demolish some sections here to create new sculptures. Our visitors will see all the other sculptures and witness the sculpture-making process."

Karaca explained that while visitors explore the sand sculptures, they will also have the opportunity to watch artists working live.

"We introduced the space adventure theme last year, which was highly appreciated. Typically, we change our themes at specific intervals. However, based on the demand we received, we decided to continue with the space adventure theme," he added.

Karaca mentioned that there are nearly 200 sculptures of various sizes in the area.

"We will demolish some of them starting from May 15 this year and transform them into different space themes. Additionally, we have opened a special section dedicated to rockets sent into space, which hold historical significance. Visitors will also be able to observe these rockets, starting from the V-2 rocket, which was the first rocket to go into space during World War II, up to the Ariane 5," he elaborated.

Over 100,000 visitors

Karaca emphasized that the festival has become one of Antalya's most important cultural, artistic and touristic attractions in recent years. He said: "It's heartening to see people showing such interest in a cultural and artistic event. While there are many foreign visitors, Turkish visitors also demonstrate great interest. Our annual visitor count averages around 100,000. These numbers are quite satisfactory and pleasing. I anticipate that we will attract even more visitors in 2024."

Space observation with telescopes

Karaca mentioned that in addition to touring the sand sculpture artworks, various other activities are organized during the festival.

"We offer our visitors the opportunity to observe Saturn, Jupiter and the moon through powerful telescopes, especially in the evenings, free of charge. We have created a special area for children called the "Magic Sand Castle," where children can experience making a sculpture for the first time. Here, with one hour of basic training using kinetic sand and modeling pens, children can create their first three-dimensional artworks. We brought a sculpture related to the 'Star Gate' movie to life using video mapping technology. Visitors who come at night can see the sculptures in the festival area illuminated with colorful ambiance."

Sculptures displayed

Some of the space-themed artworks displayed in the area include: "Star Trek," "Star Gate," "Star Wars," Darth Vader, Yoda, Baby Yoda, Mandalorian, Leonardo da Vinci, Laika, Galileo Galilei, V2 Rocket, Vostok 3 KA Rocket, Yuri Gagarin, Neil Armstrong, Martian Civilization, Saturn Rocket, Ariane Rocket, E.T, the Space X Dragon 2 Capsule, Elon Musk, Galata Tower, Hezarfen Ahmed Çelebi, First Step, Solaris, Icarus, "Fifth Element," a Zeppelin, a UFO, Discovery, Challenger, Great Pyramid of Giza, Sphinx, a Rocket Exhibition, "Guardians of the Galaxies," Paul, "Interstellar," "Prometheus," the solar system, Voyager, the Apollo Space Capsule, "Avatar" and "Soul of the Universe."