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Sand scuptures on Clearwater Beach, ukuleles in Dunedin
It’s the 12th year for the Pier 60 Sugar Sand Festival on Clearwater Beach.
Clearwater Beach’s Pier 60 will be the centerpiece of the Sugar Sand Festival, daily from March 27 (this Friday) through April 12. It’s the largest annual event within Clearwater city limits, sponsored by the City and the nonprofit Sunsets at Pier 60 Daily Festival, and by Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, the county’s bureau of tourism support. This is its 12th year.
The Sugar Sand Festival takes its name from the fine (approximately 99% pure silica quartz) powdery white sand unique to the area (if you guessed that’s why they call it sugar sand, you’re correct, and as a natural phenomenon it only exists on certain Florida beaches). Both TripAdvisor and USA Today have voted Clearwater Beach the Best Beach in the Country.
Named for State Road 60, the main drag through Clearwater Beach, Pier 60 is a full-service recreational pier (with a fishing pier at the watery end) and, as such, many beach events are planned and executed on and around it.
The Sugar Sand Festival features 18 “sand sculptors” from around the country who’ll carefully craft approximately 100 sculptures (they’re created with wet Clearwater Beach sand, “pounded up” and trucked to the festival site, then spray-treated with a light, clear glue to keep the elements, time and/or visitors from destroying them too soon).
Photo: Visit St. Pete-Clearwater.
The sand sculptures are contained in a series of white tents; the “Sugar Sand Walk” Exhibit encompasses 24,000 square feet.
The theme for 2026 is “United in Sand: Celebrating Sports and Spirit!,” and there will also be a storytelling tribute to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, featuring projection mapping, lights and narration with the sand sculptures.
Festival hours are 10 a.m-9 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, and 10 a.m-10 p.m. Friday to Saturday.
It’s a ticketed event (click here for all ticketing levels, and other pertinent information), but there’s more than sand sculptures, including a series of live music concerts (both daytime and night), speed-sand demonstrations and pro-amateur sand sculpting competitions.
Each evening will conclude with fireworks over the Gulf.
Ukes in Dunedin
Ukulele player Amber Rozel. Photo: Tampa Bay Ukulele Society.
The nonprofit Tampa Bay Ukulele Society will be at Dunedin’s Hale Center and Pioneer Park, as well as other fluid locations around the city, Friday through Sunday. The 2026 edition of the Tampa Bay Ukulele Days Festival.
Performances by Jay Nunes, Greg Gent, Amber Rozel, Glen Hitabayashi and others are the highlights of Saturday’s concert at the Hale Senior Activity Center.
Those tickets are $20 (click here), but Sunday’s membership concert, in Pioneer Park, is free.
The rest of the weekend is taken up by workshops, jams, a mini-festival with food, bev and merchandise and more.
You won’t be able to throw a stone in Dunedin this weekend without hitting a ukulele.
Please, don’t do that. Instead, enjoy the many musical journeys this little four-stringed instrument can take you on. Find the full schedule at this link.
Free ukulele music Saturday:
At Natures Food Patch: Norine Mungo, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
At the Fenway Hotel: Connie Manson & Friends, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
At Homeplate: Moondog, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
At Honu: Cosmo and Friends, 3-6 p.m.
