The opening ceremony for the 6th International Antalya Sand Sculpture Festival, which has been postponed twice due to heavy rains, is due to take place on Saturday, hosting 25 sculptors from 12 countries.

Under this year’s theme of “Hollywood 2,” the festival is organized by Global Design Art Works and sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality, the Antalya Journalists Association and the Muratpaşa Municipality. The festival, to be held at the 7,000-square-meter Lara Beach Park, will showcase over 100 sculptures created by 20 sand artists from eight countries. The sculptures depict characters from 35 Hollywood movies, including “Dracula,” “Conan the Barbarian,” “Indiana Jones,” “Shrek,” “The Fifth Element” and “The Godfather.” Created over the span of two months using 10,000 tons of sand, the sculptures are being displayed with special lighting and sound effects. The festival, which is expected to draw over 200,000 visitors, will run through Oct. 29.

Highlighting international awareness of the event, festival coordinator Cem Karaca is both surprised and pleased to see that members of the media from China, Japan, South Korea and Australia — countries that could be described as the furthest places from Turkey — as well as from other Western countries are showing interest in the festival. “This event, which is among the greatest sculpture events of the world, with the amount of sand used for the festival, the broadness of the field it is set up on and the number of sculptors attending the event, contributes to Turkey’s popularity around the world,” he said.

The opening ceremony was originally planned to take place on May 13, but heavy rain caused the event to be postponed to a later date in May. Yet again the ceremony had to be postponed due to rain.