PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Groups at Treasure Island are working to help the environment as the annual Sanding Ovation Festival starts this weekend.
And this year, vendors are being held accountable for cleaning up after themselves.
Melineige Beauregard is a sand artist at the Sanding Ovation Festival.
"Working with my hands, creating, it's awesome," said Beauregard.
Her piece is called "Take time to stop and smell the roses," and she said this festival is also a good idea for people to take time to stop and pick up trash.
"We all love to go to the beach and see a clean beach, so of course, when there's a lot of people gathering around, we often don't care so much, but if everyone can do their part and keep their trash to themselves, we can have beautiful beaches forever," said Beauregard.
This year, artists and festival organizers are asking people, especially vendors, to keep the beach clean.
"Last year, we really noticed after the vendors were all gone we found things like zip ties, small sand-colored rubber bands by the thousands, and we just can't have that. Even though we are picking up, we can't have that on the beach," said Carrie Auerbach with Treasure Island Adopt-A-Beach.
Auerbach said this year, the festival is charging vendors a deposit of about $150, and if the vendors don't clean up after themselves, they won't get the deposit back or be allowed to return to future festivals.
"It's just been a messy situation, so we are just going to see if this experiment works," said Auerbach.
Leaders say typically, after events and festivals, they see a lot of people leave behind trash, and it can take days to clean up.
"80% of all trash on land ends up in the water. So our fish, our wildlife, our turtles, we are affected," said Auerbach.
Auerbach said cigarette butts, plastic forks, and plastic knives are a big issue too.
"Please be respectful, we love this beach, I love this beach, it's a beautiful place," said Auerbach.
Beauregard said not only is keeping the beach clean important for the environment, but it's also critical for sculptures to have clean sand for future festivals.
"I guess that's kind of a way to make sure that the area is clean. I guess they are doing this because they've had problems before and year, why not?" said Beauregard.
