Charlie Chaplin, Miss Piggy, grand opera spectacles and circus clowns—countless Showtime-inspired sand sculptures are emerging from the sand at the Hundested Sand Sculpture Festival in northeast Denmark.

Launched in 2012 as a creative way to put the small seaside town of 8,000 on the tourist map, the Hundested Sand Sculpture Festival is now in its fourteenth year.

Organizer Christian Warrer says, with so much going on in the world that is “not to laugh about,” they chose to explore a “funny” theme like Showtime. The sculptors have just days to complete their sandy masterpieces, but the festival runs till late October, so durability is key.

The annual event, which opened to visitors on May 23, attracts every year an array of top international sand sculptors, from Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, Latvia, the UK, the United States and more.

Sixteen international artists are attending this year, most crafting two sculptures over the course of a fortnight.

Italian sand sculptor Michela Ciappini, from Bologna, is finishing this graceful figure of an elderly woman mid-dance.

“I imagine that now the very important person is the old generation who represent their entire life and actually our roots. So, I give them the dance and the freedom and the attention,” explains Ciappini.

Elsewhere, British sand sculptor Nicola Wood is finishing this Picasso-esque strongman-themed sand sculpture.

“I've just taken all the elements of a strong man, a woman, and pieced them all back together in a Picasso style, using his iconic parts,” she explains. “The weights, the strong arm, the bit of leopard print, some circus stripes, some circus lettering.”

Wood says sand sculpting has evolved a lot over the past 20 years.

“People are really testing the limits of sand. They're testing its capabilities. The texture, the strength of it. People are really taking it somewhere,” she adds. “People are pushing those boundaries and using sand to tell different stories and to make political messages. That's something that has definitely increased and evolved.”

Over 60,000 visitors are expected to gaze on these daring creations over the festival’s six-month run.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.