During July 17-21, 2023, the tenth anniversary of the Kalmar International Sand Sculpture Festival was held.

Sand Sculpture Festival: winners 2023!

On July 17–21, it was full steam down at Kalmarsundsbadet, and during Friday the winners for both the jury's and the audience's prizes were announced. Here we present the winners, but also all the entries for this year's sand sculpture festival.

Many of the previous year's winners were invited to participate in the sand sculpting festival's tenth anniversary, "Champions of Sand", and there was great competition among the eight teams.

During Friday, however, the gold, silver and bronze winners were crowned for the jury's and the audience's choice. Edwin Böck, who is the initiator of the competition, former participant and artistic director of the event sums up:

– What a wonderful 10-year anniversary we got to experience! Amazing sculptures, wonderful artists and a great atmosphere – and not least – what a turnout of the audience that allowed themselves to be surprised by everything that happened during the week. We also had the children who participated in our sand sculpting workshops, which give hope for future artists who want to create something exciting in sand. I'm already looking forward to next year's edition.

JURY PRIZE WINNER: ANTROPOCEN

TEAM 1: SWEDEN

Leif Andersson & Lars Fager.

The team has participated every year and has now taken home two wins. The Anthropocene is an artistic interpretation of an important message, and the motivation reads:

"The winner works with a motif that has relevance, especially in relation to Kalmarsund and the Baltic Sea. The sculpture contains several details that you discover when looking at it for a while. The sculpture is technically skilfully executed, with the ability to make sand look like both stone, rubber and plastic.”