Each year for the April 30 and May 1 holidays, the people in Danang eagerly await the Danang sea tourism season organized by the Son Tra Peninsula Management Board and the Danang tourist beaches. This annual program offers locals and visitors an opportunity to immerge themselves in festivals, games, and sports activities and promotes the image of a fresh, pretty, and welcoming Danang. As part of the series of events, Duy Tan University (DTU) joined hands with the Son Tra Peninsula Management Board to hold the 2019 Sand Sculpture Contest on the Beach with the topic “Aspiration”, on April 26. Its objective was to call for increasing maritime ecological awareness.
The contest attracted a great many participants
The Sand Sculpture Contest on the Beach was organized for the first time in 2016 and has grown in scale in subsequent years, with ever more contestants. This year, the contest fell in a series of activities DTU organizes to mark its 25th anniversary (on November 11, 2019). As such, the topic “Aspiration” suffusing the contest had a lot of meaning for the university, which wished to join hand to protect our green environment and our seas. This year, the number of contestants was higher than ever, with almost 300 people in thirty teams. The works of art produced for the contest met with the high appreciation of the jury for their ideas, creativity, and esthetic value.
MSc Dang Ngoc Trung, Director of the Center for Enrollment, awarding second prizes to the Earth and Star Fruit Brotherhood teams
The sweltering late-April sunshine seemed unable to abate the ardor of the young participants, who overflowed with enthusiasm and with a determination to create masterpieces. After five hours of creative work with sand and sea water, using nimble hands and rich ideas, the amateur artists create thirty sand sculptures. There were the sad eyes of an elephant with its tusks cut off, a dolphin calling for help after being encircled by sea trash, a person powerless against the alarming situation of the globe, and many more. The stork, the DTU mascot and logo, alongside the number 25 also made an appearance on the scorching sand.
“The contest is a really useful and meaningful activity, especially for us, young people,” Dinh Thanh Son of the Red Blouse team explained. “We can all exchange, learn, and improve our spirit of solidarity and team work. Today’s contest was a wonderful experience, leaving the entire team with unforgettable memories.”
Besides the sand sculptures, the organizers also devoted some space to the display of the prize-winning pictures of the fifth Go See Do Danang photograph contest, organized by DTU in March 2019. After finishing their sculptures, the contestants could take part in small games, increasing the excitement and laughter among contestants and spectators alike.
The jury awarded points and announced the prizes for the most outstanding and impressive works of art:
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Prize
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Team
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no first prize
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two second prizes
3 million VND each, 2 vouchers worth 2 million VND for four people to go paragliding each
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Earth
Star Fruit Brotherhood
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two third prizes
2 million VND each, 2 vouchers worth 2 million VND for four people to go paragliding each
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Red Blouse
The Dark-Skinned Boys
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five consolation prizes
1 million VND each, 1 voucher worth 1 million VND for five people on a banana boat trip each
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Super Si
Unknown
Pharmacy Star
999 Roses
Duyên Cute hot me
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four Movement prizes (200,000 VND each), ten Potential prizes (500,000 VND each), and two Voucher prizes (2 vouchers worth 2 million VND for four people to go paragliding each)
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The works Life by the Earth team and Protect the Elephants by the Star Fruit Brotherhood team won second prizes
The works Life by the Earth team and Protect the Elephants by the Star Fruit Brotherhood team won second prizes and enjoyed the high appreciation of the jury for their meaningful messages and delicate shapes. “‘Protect the elephants’ is what my team wants to convey, to stop the illegal trafficking of elephant ivory so as to save the elephants from extinction,” Nguyen Tan Hau, student at the DTU Faculty of Architecture and member of the Star Fruit Brotherhood, explains. “We should all join hands to protect the environment and maritime life in particular, and nature and natural resources and general. If we treat the environment well and live in harmony with it, we will be able to enjoy the good things of nature.”
To wit, the same afternoon at the Opening Ceremony of the 2019 Danang sea tourism season, DTU Vice Provost Dr Nguyen Tan Thang and the businesses and hotels on the Danang coast signed a commitment to protect the tourism environment together.
The 2019 Sand Sculpture Contest on the Beach contributed to the diversity of the events for the promotion of maritime tourism in Danang. The contest not only offered a healthy playground for people who love the sea and a useful arena for DTU students to hone their skills, but also a unique and novel sight for locals and visitors alike, with many beautiful and meaningful sand sculptures right on the beach.
(Media Center)