It often is all-too-easy for us to use superlatives to praise a community event, but in the case of this past week’s 10th annual Revere Beach Sand Sculpting Festival, superlatives alone do not do justice to the incredible festival that was attended by more than 500,000 persons from Thursday through Sunday.
First and foremost, the festival lived up to its billing as a world-class event, drawing noted sand sculptors from around the globe, including winner Jonathan Bouchard (who goes by the moniker of Jobi), who hails from Montreal and who claimed the Revere Beach title for the fourth consecutive year. The weekend’s activities also once again placed both Revere Beach and our city in a positive light, truly showing for all to see what a vibrant and livable community Revere can be for residents of ages.
The addition this year of the gourmet food trucks, some of which are operated by Revere residents, proved to be a big hit and added greatly to the festive atmosphere that permeated Revere Beach Boulevard all weekend long.
But perhaps what was most impressive about this year’s festival was the seamless manner in which the Revere Beach Partnership, a volunteer organization under the direction of Executive Director Amanda Gourgue and headed by President John Hamel, coped with the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing. The Partnership was forced to go back to the drawing board and revise all of its plans for the festival in order to address matters of security. Not only did the Partnership meet those concerns, but the new festival format that was the end result proved to be even more conducive to providing both a safe and enjoyable venue for the festival than ever before.
In a word, this year’s festival was an amazing event. We know we join with festival-goers of all ages in thanking the Partnership and others who contributed to the overall effort for their countless hours of preparation that went into making this year’s festival the best ever and that we look forward to 2014’s festival with great anticipation.
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