By Adam Swift
The Revere city council approved $140,000 in funding to help pay for security and public safety details at this year’s Revere Beach International Sand Sculpting Festival at last week’s meeting.
The event, which will celebrate its 21st year this year, kicks off on July 25 and is organized by the Revere Beach Partnership.
For at least the past decade, the city has worked with the Revere Beach Partnership to help defray the costs of hosting the popular event.
“Over the years, the city has used free cash to help stabilize and help keep this partnership’s event going each year,” said Mayor Patrick Keefe. “If you go back 20 years, you know (former mayor) Tom Ambrosino and the crew that really started this partnership, the cost to run this event from a state police standpoint and a DCR standpoint was probably $50,000, $25,000.”
This year, the mayor said, the bill is $223,000.
The balance of that bill will be paid through a grant from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, according to Keefe.
In the recent past, Keefe noted that the city was able to use ARPA Covid relief funds and paid as much as $175,000 toward the festival.
“We all know that the event is a fan favorite every year, it attracts between 500,000 and 750,000 visitors and it is a boon to the local economy, and of course, it is emblematic of what the city of Revere has when it comes to the first public beach,” said Keefe.
Councilor-at-Large Anthony Zambuto said he is a big booster of the sand sculpting festival, but said he had issues with the Revere Beach Partnership’s decision a number of years ago not to accept donations from a particular corporate sponsor that donated over $150,000 to the festival over the years. Zambuto proposed a $20,000 cut to the amount proposed by the mayor, but that motion failed and the council approved the $140,000 free cash request.
Councilor-at-Large Juan Pablo Jaramillo asked Revere Beach Partnership Vice President Adrienne Maquire about the possibility of the council or mayor appointing a representative to the nonprofit’s board, given that the city has been a financial partner with it for many years.
Maguire noted that Linda DeMaio from the mayor’s office does serve on the partnership, and she added that while an elected city official could not serve as a voting member, one could serve as an advisory member.
Keefe added that his wife recently joined the board as a non-voting member, so as not to create the appearance of a conflict.
Ward 5 Councillor Angela Guarino-Sawaya said the partnership likely does not need an appointed city official looking over it.
Ward 3 Councillor Anthony Cogliandro asked the mayor about how much the festival boosts the local economy.
“It’s definitely a metric where we want to generate more actual revenues,” said Keefe. “But we are a city, and we have a beach, it is a tourist attraction. We have to have attractions to make people want to come here outside of the beach, that is obviously a large part of it, but we wouldn’t be a beach community without having events.
“The city of Revere, to put on an event of this magnitude … we all need the partnership to do it, it is a heavy lift.”
Keefe said the partnership does a number of events throughout the year, and that the sand sculpting festival helps subsidize those other events throughout the rest of the year.
“There is definitely an add to the economy,” said Keefe. “The restaurants at 500 Ocean Ave. are packed from Wednesday to Sunday, the hotel is over capacity. As a matter of fact, … all the other hotels in the area are filling up for the tourists and the people coming to the event.”
Apart from the money, Keefe said the festival is a great event for the city and the surrounding area.
“I know our residents do complain about the traffic that weekend, but we also love it, enjoy it, we share in the joy with some of the traffic misery that we have to go through,” said the mayor.
This year’s Revere Beach International Sand Sculpting Festival runs from Friday, July 25 through Sunday, July 27. In addition to the sand sculptures from international sand sculpting artists, the festival features over 75 food vendors, food trucks and exhibitors, interactive activities, amusement rides, and fireworks.–