Driftwood and Sand is one of New Zealand's most distinctive arts festivals, held each March on the wild beach at Hokitika on the West Coast. Artists and sculptors gather at the edge of the Tasman Sea to create temporary works from the driftwood, sand and natural materials of the beach — works that exist for a brief time before the tide and the wind return them to the elements, making Driftwood and Sand a celebration of art that is as transient and beautiful as the West Coast itself.
The festival reflects something essential about the West Coast — a place of dramatic natural beauty, raw elemental power and a community that has always found its own way of doing things. The beach art installations range from intricate and intimate to large-scale and architectural, and the combination of creative ambition and natural impermanence gives the festival a poetic quality that is genuinely moving. Artists work through the night and the day, and visitors can watch the process as well as the finished works.
For visitors to Hokitika during the Wildfoods Festival season, Driftwood and Sand adds a quieter, more contemplative dimension to the West Coast experience. Walking along the beach among the sculptures, with the Tasman Sea crashing and the Southern Alps in the distance, is one of those New Zealand experiences that reminds you of the extraordinary richness of this country's landscape and the creativity it inspires.