North Adams Beach Party Returns After 2-Year Absence
Beach Party founder Eric Rudd at 2018's event. The party includes beach pails and shovels to help make sand sculptures.
The annual beach party has endured many trials and tribulations over the years but has become a local favorite with hundreds of residents attending.
The idea to lay 250,000 pounds of sand on Eagle Street for a family-friendly event was cultivated by artist and developer Eric Rudd back in 1999.
Rudd and his wife, Barbara, moved to North Adams full time in 1990 during a time when there were not a lot of activities for families and Main Street was almost vacant.
"It was very depressing in the '90s. I mean, Main Street was 70 percent vacant. ... everyone was out of jobs. Everybody was leaving, the population dropped."
Rudd views this annual event as a sculpture developed from his experiences organizing previous events and exhibits while running the Contemporary Artists Center.
When the event was first curated, part of the CAC's Downtown Installations project in collaboration with the city, construction sand was donated and later used for the roads in the winter months. After hearing about the event, Specialty Minerals in Adams called and offered to donate limestone sand.
"It's beautiful sand. And my joke is just like Miami Beach. The only difference is that when you dig down on the Eagle Street beach, you hit bottom. So anyway, and the kids love it, and we have pools of water so they can make the sand moist enough," Rudd said.
"We use kiddie pools, we try to bury them in the sand. ... Aesthetically, it's very important that every inch of the street is covered curb to curb, I don't want to see any pavement. You know, it's an artistic thing. I want it to look right."
The event gives people from diverse backgrounds an opportunity to come together and create art.
"[The first year] within a half-hour [of the event starting] it was filled with families. It was a perfect family thing. I mean, it was kids and families making sand sculptures," Rudd said.
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art opened the same year, in 1999. Rudd said people told him that they did not know anything about art so the museum was not for them.
"And I'm thinking, but the same people came with their kids, and they were making these crazy sand sculptures and thinking, what's the difference between the sand sculptures and some of the sculptures at Mass MoCA," he said.
A decade after its started, the event grew into a double-party, featuring the family-friendly beach party followed by a Mexican fiesta.
The city's Department of Public Works will deliver and help spread 25 truckloads of white sand down the entire length of historic Eagle Street. Volunteers are welcome to help spread the sand the morning of the event. The sand will be picked up by DPW crews later that night.
From 3:30 until 6:30 p.m., families will get a chance to create their own sand art within Rudd's block-long community sculpture using beach toys that Eagle Street merchants and businesses have donated.
These merchants and businesses also donated prizes, including gift certificates from Jack's Hot Dogs, 250 SteepleCats tickets and more.
Winning these prizes requires no artistic experience, just the willingness to create and have fun.
The 11th annual adult-only Mexican Fiesta follows from 7 to 10 p.m. featuring live music; Desperados will have Corona beer and margaritas for sale.
Tags: beach party,
