A couple months ago our family visited the 2014 Nantou Sand Sculpture Festival [南投市貓羅溪畔沙雕藝術節]. One thing that separated this year’s festival with previous years was an emphasis on health and environmental issues. A few prominent sculptures warned on the dangers of nuclear power, deforestation, marine pollution and food safety.
Beware of the Octopus
In Nuclear We Trust
News of tainted food products makes headlines on a semi-regular basis in Taiwan:
A New Year Greeting wishing prosperity [Gōngxǐ fācái (恭禧發財)]
If you look closely at the picture below you may notice the dolphin is crying and garbage is spilling out of her rotten stomach:
Dolphin Family
Thanks to Florentijn Hofman every festival in Taiwan big and small requires a duck:
Some of us never quite grow up:
Excitement for Breasts
The kids weren’t terribly interested in the sculptures, luckily there was an area of sand that they could actually play in:
Nathan argues the benefits of his rake over Josie’s shovel
Below are a trio of photographs that I noticed looked better in black and white in post-processing:
Waterfall
Turtle Kingdom
I would probably have the same expression if I woke up to find a miniature city growing out of the back of my head:
The Daily Bubble Tea 
Reblogged this on O LADO ESCURO DA LUA.
Thank you for sharing these photos. Sometimes being away from home means I lose the opportunity to go to hosted events such as these.
Best wishes to you and your family in the new year!
Thanks Lavender Wynter!
Nice series of images. I like how you’ve included pictures of your children to break up the documentation of the sculptures.
Thank you Timothy!
Great to see what’s going on around the World fr “outside the media”. And good to know that many of us are aware of similar issues. Thanks fr Spain.
Thanks for stopping by!
What a great collection of photos! I went to the sand sculpture festival in Nantou previous years but it just wasn’t in the cards this year. Every plan to go there got either rain on or something else came up!
Thanks. I would say “There’s always next year!” but that might not be true. Last year’s festival was cancelled after it was announced because the county ran out of money.
Really great sculptures. These are amazing!
This year’s sculptures were very nice. I hope the event comes back next year. The kids really enjoyed it.
Do you know if the sand sculpture festival in Nantou is happening this year?
Unfortunately it isn’t. I guess hosting the Lantern Fest last year didn’t put enough money in the city coffers.
Ah, that’s too bad! Oh, well.