It’s the ninth year for the Pier 60 Sugar Sand Festival in Clearwater. This festival will feature 1,000 tons of sand sculptures for thousands of people to see. World-class sculptors from around the world have gathered in the city for the return of this exceptional festival.

The theme for this year’s festival is “A Blast From the Past,” which is being created in a 21,000-square-foot structure.

Viewers can walk through displays of iconic figures from the decades. Sculptor Dan Belcher says, “Going through the decades, it’s going to have things from people’s childhood to adulthood, and everybody’s going to have a different perspective.”

These masterpieces are not just sand sculptures. Careful carving, patting and watering are essential to creating these works.

“We love to work here so it’s nice to be able to just work with existing sand here,” says sculptor Dean Arscott.

The festival runs April 7 to April 23, and for tickets and more information, go to sugarsandfestival.com.

It’s official: Carole Baskin closes Big Cat Rescue

Netflix star Carole Baskin is officially closing Tampa’s Big Cat Rescue. Nearly three years after the popular Netflix series Tiger King took the internet by storm, founder Carole Baskin took to Instagram to share how the Big Cat Safety Act calls for change.

Baskin says, “The bill phases out private ownership by unlicensed private owners who keep them as pets in what are typically miserable conditions in backyards or worse.”

Baskin has advocated for the act for over 30 years, since the bill prohibits the private ownership of big cats, Big Cat Rescue will eventually move all of the animals to sanctuaries and sell the property. Over 35 cats will be relocated to the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas. Big Cat Rescue says that they will help in funding the building for the new enclosures.

Brittany, a keeper at Big Cat Rescue says, “Manny has pretty much one more week out in the funcation enclosure and then we will be trying to load him up and move him to the new enclosure.”

All of the proceeds from the sales will go to ending big cat abuse.

Lets take a trip to the moon

NASA and the Canadian space agency are announcing the four astronauts who will take part in the next mission to the moon.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says, “Ladies and gentleman your Artemis II crew.”

This mission will send the first woman and person of color to the moon. The astronauts will include mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, commander Reid Wiseman and pilot Victor Glover.

These astronauts will take a trip around the moon, testing out NASA’s deep-space exploration abilities, as well as the space launch system rocket and Orion spacecraft.

This mission will last 10 days and will be taking off at Kennedy Space Center in November 2024