Dates Announced for the 2021 Siesta Key Crystal Classic International Sand Sculpting Festival

July 2, 2021 – Sarasota

After making the difficult decision to cancel last year’s festival due to COVID-19, The Siesta Key Chamber is excited to announce the dates for the 2021 festival!  This November 12-15th, twenty-four premier master sand sculptors will be competing for 1^st place on Siesta Beach.  

The Siesta Key Crystal Classic is a visual and cultural arts festival now in its 11th year and has hosted over 300,000 attendees on the best beach in the USA!  

In only 24 sculpting hours, (spanning the four-day event), the master sculptors create sand masterpieces and transform the always beautiful Siesta Beach into an amazing outdoor art gallery. 

And it’s more than just sand…the festival also features live music throughout the event along with a large village of shopping and food and drink vendors. Other activities include the popular three-day “Quick Sand” competition, sand sculpting lessons and an amateur sculpting competition. 

The festival will be open Saturday night until 9 pm with live music by Fleetwood Max, The Definitive Fleetwood Mac Tribute Band. A full live music line up will be announced in October. The party tent will be open and the sculptures will be lit through a fabulous light display.    

In 2019, the Siesta Key Crystal Classic generated some 16,000 hotel room nights and over $9 million in economic impact for our community. The festival welcomed over 40,000 attendees during the four days. 

The free Siesta Key Breeze trolley runs daily from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm to and from Siesta Key Village and Turtle Beach.  A mobile app is available to track the trolley in real time.   

Also, new transportation on and off Siesta Key is now available via Sarasota County’s OnDemand service. Customers can request a ride via a mobile app, which is available in app stores for iPhone and Android devices, online at scgov.net/OnDemand, or by calling 941-300-1553.  OnDemand uses accessible minivans and operates similarly to today’s popular ridesharing services like Uber and Lift.  The OnDemand vehicle will pick up customers and take them to their destinations within the same zone.  

Visit www.siestakeycrystalclassic.com for information regarding the 2021 event schedule. Advance tickets and parking passes are on sale now.  Sponsorship and volunteer opportunities are also available.  

The Siesta Key Crystal Classic is presented in collaborative partnership between the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce and the Siesta Beach Festival, Inc.  Our mission is to promote tourism, local businesses and the visual arts via the production of one of the most unique sculpture festivals held in the world on the #1 beach in the U.S. 

A portion of the proceeds will go to the Siesta Key Crystal Classic Scholarship Fund for Ringling College of Art + Design. 

For more information about Siesta Key Crystal Classic contact the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce – 941-349-3800; email events@siestakeychamber.com, or visit www.siestakeycrystalclassic.com.  For video, please visit the Siesta Key Crystal Classic YouTube channel.