San Diego Sandcastle Competition: Imperial Beach Guide

San Diego’s sandcastle competition happens in Imperial Beach, at the city’s annual Sun & Sea Festival beside the pier. The 2026 festival on July 18 brought professional master sand sculptors back to compete for the first time in several years, alongside a kids’ sandcastle contest, and the 2027 date had not been announced as of November 2026.

The short version

	Details
Event	Imperial Beach Sun & Sea Festival (sandcastle competition, kids’ contest, street fair, live music)
Where	Portwood Pier Plaza, 10 Evergreen Ave, Imperial Beach
Last held	Saturday, July 18, 2026, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Next	2027, date to be announced
Official site	sunandseafestival.com

From the U.S. Open to the Sun & Sea Festival

If you remember a giant sandcastle weekend in Imperial Beach, you are probably thinking of the U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition. Local residents formed the first Sandcastle Days Committee in 1981, and for three decades the event drew huge crowds to the beach south of Coronado, with kids’, amateur and professional divisions and prize money in the tens of thousands of dollars for the master sculptors. According to its history summary, the last U.S. Open in Imperial Beach took place in 2011, and organizers ended it because of a lack of resources and volunteers.

In 2013 the community launched the Imperial Beach Sun & Sea Festival as a smaller, volunteer-run replacement. The format has shifted from year to year. In 2024, for example, there was no traditional sculptors’ competition; instead the festival built a single “mega” castle from 80 cubic yards of sand next to Pier Plaza, while 15 teams of kids competed in the Kids-n-Kastles event just north of the pier.

2026: the sculptors came back

For the city’s 70th birthday in 2026, the festival brought back master sand carvers to compete. The festival’s own site lists the 2026 results:

• First place: “Peek Inside” by Team Shoreline Shapers
• Second place: “iLiik’ik Talokan” by Team Sculpintures
• Sculptors’ Choice: “Save our Sandcastles” by IB Posse

A kids’ sandcastle competition ran alongside it. Whether the professional division returns in 2027 is up to the organizers, so check the official site when the date is posted.

What to expect on festival day

The festival centers on Portwood Pier Plaza at the foot of Evergreen Avenue, where Seacoast Drive meets the Imperial Beach Pier. The plaza has hosted a stage with live bands, and Seacoast Drive becomes a street fair with vendors and food. The sculptures sit on the sand on either side of the pier, close enough to the plaza that you can wander between the music, the booths and the beach.

The festival has traditionally been free to attend. Past years have also included a Friday-evening kickoff party in town the night before. Details change every year, so look at the current schedule on the festival site before you plan around a specific band or activity.

Best time to see the sculptures

Master sculptors carve over many hours, and the finished pieces are usually best seen in the afternoon, once judging is close and the forms are complete. Morning visits let you watch the carving itself, which is half the fun: teams pack wet sand into forms, then shave it down from the top with trowels, palette knives and drinking straws for blowing away loose grains. Big sculptures tend to stay up for a short time after the event until wind, tide or the city crews take them down, so plan on festival day itself if you want to see them at their best.

Kids’ sandcastle competition

The kids’ contest is the most hands-on part of the day. In 2024 the Kids-n-Kastles event had 15 teams building from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., sponsored by the Imperial Beach/South Bay Kiwanis, with sign-ups through the festival website. Expect a similar early-morning slot and limited team spots. Register as soon as the form opens.

Getting there and parking

By transit. For the 2026 festival, MTS advised taking the UC San Diego Blue Line trolley to Palm Avenue Station, then transferring to Route 933 or Rapid 227 toward the pier. It’s a good choice on a festival Saturday, when parking near Seacoast Drive is hard to find.

By car. The Port of San Diego’s free parking list includes three options close to the pier:

• Elkwood Parking Lot, 108 Elkwood Ave (57 spaces)
• Palm Parking Lot, 105 Palm Ave (24 spaces)
• Beach street ends along avenues such as Descanso, Cortez and Palm (about 132 spaces)

That’s not much space for a festival crowd. Arrive before mid-morning, or park farther north and walk. Port parks close from 10:30 p.m. to 6 a.m., and posted signs override general rules.

By bike. The Bayshore Bikeway runs along the Silver Strand into Imperial Beach, so you can ride in from Coronado with a bike on the ferry. Our San Diego biking guide covers the route.

Check the water before you swim

The beach at Imperial Beach is often under a water-contact closure because sewage-laden flows from the Tijuana River reach the ocean. In late August 2026, for example, the county extended a closure that already covered the Imperial Beach Pier area to include Cortez Avenue, with shoreline closures running from the border to about three-quarters of a mile north of the river mouth (Times of San Diego).

Building with dry or damp sand above the waterline is a different thing from swimming, but kids at a sandcastle event inevitably end up at the water’s edge. Look up the day’s status at sdbeachinfo.com or call the county’s 24-hour hotline at 619-338-2073. Closures stay in place until sampling shows the water is safe, and the county also asks people to stay out of the ocean for 72 hours after rain anywhere in the county.

Building your own sandcastle in San Diego

If you’re not in town for the festival, you can still build a serious sandcastle on almost any wide, sandy San Diego beach. What matters is fine, damp sand and plenty of space above the high-tide line. Coronado Central Beach and the Silver Strand have broad, flat sand. Mission Beach and Pacific Beach get busy in summer but work early in the day. Our San Diego beach guide compares them.

A few tips from how competition carvers work:

• Go at a falling tide. Damp sand just above the water packs best, and a falling tide gives you hours before the water returns. Tide tables are posted for local stations by NOAA.
• Pack, then carve. Fill a bucket or a bottomless form with wet sand in thin layers, tamp each layer hard, and only then lift the form and carve. Carve from the top down so falling sand doesn’t land on finished work.
• Bring simple tools. Plastic putty knives, a melon baller, paintbrushes and a spray bottle of water to keep surfaces from drying out will do more than any store-bought kit.
• Fill in your holes. Deep pits are a tripping hazard for beach walkers and lifeguard vehicles. Level the sand before you leave.

May through early summer often starts gray at the coast, and the sun may not break through until midday. See our San Diego weather guide for what to expect by month.

Other sandcastle events nearby

San Diego County doesn’t have another public, long-running sandcastle competition on the scale Imperial Beach once had. Some local organizations hold small team-building sand events on Coronado beaches, but these are generally not open to the public. If you want another big contest within driving distance, the Newport Beach sandcastle contest at Corona del Mar in Orange County has run for more than six decades. Check its site for the current year’s date.

Who will enjoy it

The Sun & Sea Festival works best for families with kids who like to build, for photographers, and for anyone who wants a laid-back, small-town beach day rather than a big ticketed event. Pair it with a walk out on the Imperial Beach Pier, a ride on the Bayshore Bikeway, or birdwatching at the Tijuana River estuary just south of town. To make a full South Bay day of it, take the Coronado ferry across from downtown and ride or drive down the Silver Strand.