On a sandy beach of Haeundae, which is the best summer resort in Korea, 'The 2011 Haeundae Sand Festival' will be held for 4 days from Friday, June 3^rd to Monday, June 6^th. The festival is hosted and sponsored by the Haeundae district and the Haeundae Sand Festival Management Committee. This is the festival’s seventh year.

The Festival, which is Korea's only environment-friendly sand festival, is an event designed to be enjoyed by people of all ages, taking advantage of Haeundae’s ocean and sand.

It was designated as one of the most promising festivals of this year by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. This festival consists of 32 different programs with three concepts, 'See the Sand', 'Feel the Sand' and 'Enjoy the Sand'.

First of all, 'See the Sand' is a staged spectator event. With a theme, 'The Fantastic Sand World', it includes many programs like The World Sand Sculpture Exhibition, Korean and Foreign Sand Artists' Exhibition, Celebratory Air Show of Black Eagles, Salsa Competition and Rock Festival. Especially for the world sand sculpture exhibition, a European castle in the style of the Middle Ages is built on the beach with the title, 'A fairy-tale trip to a sand castle'. Here, you can see European sand castles, 'Jack and the Beanstalk', 'The Little Mermaid' and 'Gulliver's Travels' made by sand artists. They are like magic. Also, a medieval European gatekeeper guards the castle gate and medieval Europeans welcome tourists to the sand castle.

After seeing fantastic sand works, you can enjoy an experiential event, 'Feel the Sand'. There are various programs in this event too, like the 'Sand Board Festival' to enjoy speed on a 10m sand hill, a 'Sand Market' and 'Let's Play With Sand' to realize the value of sand, a gold sand road, 'A Street of Light, Luminarie', 'A Future Experience Center (3D movie theater/4D movie car)', 'Challenge! Sand Guinness' and 'Challenge! I'm a sand sculptor'. 'Challenge! I'm a sand sculptor' is a special program to make sand sculptures with families, lovers and friends as a team. Many gifts are presented for excellent works in this program.

If it gets hot during the sand carving, you can ride a kayak and enjoy surfing in an ocean experience program, 'The Sea Is Calling You'.

Lastly, in the 'Enjoy the Sand' event for tourists and circle members, there are many programs such as the 'Children’s Sand Olympics', 'Haeundae Fun-Fun Stage', 'I am a Super-star (A harmony singing contest)' and a 'Beach Volleyball Competition'.

In addition, Haeundae beach becomes a big club at night during the sand festival. Here, famous Korean DJs are on stage (Club Sand) from Saturday to Sunday to provide interesting shows. Tourists can enjoy the night festival full of the beat of music, passion and the shouts of young people at the beach.

In addition, you can receive gifts from the Haeundae-gu office if you post your festival stories or pictures on their homepage, http://sandfestival.haeundae.go.kr.

Ko Hye-young  khy2846@changwon.ac.kr

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