Page 10 THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – FRiDAy, July 24, 2026 Rain Delays Fireworks, But Sand Sculpting Festival Draws Big Crowds T By Neil Zolot he weather was beautiful and attendance high for most of the 2026 Revere Beach International Sand Sculpting Festival from Friday, July 17 to Sunday, July 19, but rain late Saturday, July 18 delayed the event’s fireworks planned for Saturday night until Sunday and pushed the 6 p.m. awards ceremony off the bandstand and into the Marriott SpringHill Suites hotel on Beach Street, where it was livestreamed on RevereTV’s YouTube channel. Late Saturday afternoon, Kelsey Ficociello, event co-coordinator for Foundation Management and Pro-Productions (FMP) reported sales were brisk at a table selling sweatshirts and T-shirts for event sponsors Revere Beach Partnership (RBP) to the point where customers could no longer get clothing in certain sizes. “It was a nice morning, and we sold a lot of things,” she said. “It was super busy.” Local vendor Eric Schwartz, who makes personalized jewelry and other things like keychains, also reported healthy sales during good weather. “Today was good,” he said Saturday. Schwartz lives on Revere Beach and has been attending various events there or going to the beach since he was a boy living in Winthrop. He also worked as a paraprofessional and substitute teacher in the Revere school system. “I remember the old Revere Beach,” he said, reminiscing about the amusement park character with many rides and eateries once there. He also called the Sand Sculpting Festival “a great event.” The first such festival was 22 years ago and was the brainchild of long-standing RBP member and current president Adrienne Sacco-Maguire. “We couldn’t do this without her,” RBP board member John Hamel said at the awards ceremony. “She’s a founder of this event.” This year was only the 21st festival due to a cancellation in 2020 due to the pandemic. In 2023 rain on Saturday night also drove the awards ceremoThe 2026 annual Revere Beach International Sand Sculpting Festival transformed the shores of America’s First Public Beach this past weekend gathering world-class sand sculptors who showcased their incredible talents to hundreds of thousands of visitors. First place winner, Jobi Bouchard’s sculpture, Odyssey is admired by onlookers taking pictures from the boulevard this past weekend. See inside for photo highlights.(Advocate photo by Emily Harney) ny indoors. “I grew up on Revere Beach and, for me, it’s quite personal we have events on it,” she reacted before thanking Mayor Patrick Keefe. “He helps keep this event running,” she said. “We couldn’t do it without him.” Keefe, in turn, thanked the City Council and members of his administration and the event organizers for their efforts. He added that city funds appropriated for the event “are well spent to make sure we have a safe event. It’s about how we’re a coastal community and have America’s first public beach,” a reference to the official establishment of Revere Beach in 1896. “It’s about welcoming everyone to Revere Beach,” Hamel agreed. “Our mission is to preserve and enhance America’s oldest public beach in three areas, economic, environmental and social. This event combines all three and highlights how we all belong here. It’s a microcosm of what Revere Beach is all about.” He also said the festival’s sand sculpture theme, Boston Welcomes the World, featuring soccer balls and players relating to the World Cup being held at stadiums across the United States, including Foxboro Stadium and co-hosting nations Canada and Mexico, dovetailed with the idea of a place where everybody can go and feel at home. Another example of the cachet the festival has gained was a sand sculpture commissioned by marketing firm Extra Credit to promote a new Netflix TV series, The Hawk, starring Will Ferrell as an aging golfer coming out of retirement. “We thought it would be a great fit,” Extra Credit associate producer Milo Nichols said. Netflix was one of the corporate sponsors of the festival and he was giving out promotional hats and beer koozies, which are insulated sleeves used to keep beer and soda cans cold. As a resident of Los Angeles, he’d never been to Revere Beach before. “It’s lovely,” he said. Neither Boston Welcomes the World, on which all the sculptors worked, nor the Will Ferrell piece were in the festival’s competition between sculptors coordinated by co-organizers Broken Glass. “It’s never an easy decision to make,” Broken Glass sculpting instructor Melineige Beauregard said of the decision. As he had in 2024, Jobi Bouchard of Quebec won First Prize, the People’s Choice Award and Sculptor’s Choice chosen by the other artists, for his shell-like sculpture Odyssey, possibly an allusion to the new film of the same name. Second place went to his fellow Canadian Marie-Line Gagné for her sculpture of an armadillo called Overprotection. Third place went to Belgian Hanneke Supply for the eye laden Digital Hideout. A connection to the World Cup was Belgium beating the United States in the Round of 16, as was East Boston resident Ndricim “Jimmy” Bejko’s creation The Final Countdown, which was inspired by the World Cup trophy. Bejko, a professional sculptor, is originally from Albania, where he attended one of the country’s few artistic high schools. He came to the US in 2005 and first saw the sand sculptures on Revere Beach in 2008, which prompted him to start working with sand. “Sand sculptures are ephemeral,” Hamel noted. “They disappear, but the artists come here.” “The artists give us something to look forward to every July,” Keefe added. Sunday evening was a perfect night for fireworks, as they went off without a hitch.
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