That’s one big sand-sculpture birthday cake at the OC Fair

When sand sculptors Greg and Brandi Glenn were invited to the OC Fair’s 125th anniversary this year, they made sure to bring two ingredients every party should have, cake and party animals — although these are carved into 300 tons of sand.

Since the fair opened this summer, the married couple from San Luis Obispo have shaped a sand sculpture of a birthday cake, complete with alligators, pigs, gorillas and other mammals, amphibians and fish.

“We weren’t asked to do anything too specific,” Brandi said. “It’s the 125th anniversary of the fair, so the only request was to make a birthday cake. Animals always draw people, so we went with that.”

The sand cake has proved to be a popular background in photos, finding its way to the Instagram accounts of many fairgoers. Photographers try to capture the sharp details of the animals atop present boxes and the OC Fair’s logo for the “One Big Party” theme etched at the bottom.

Greg, 57, and Brandi, 46, own Sandscapes, a company that has fashioned many grains of sand into grand figures for corporate events and beach festivals for nearly 30 years. The company manages multiple sculpting teams across the U.S.

For the OC Fair, Greg, Brandi and team member John Woodworth, 48, from Austin, Texas, were ready to get their hands dirty.

They began transporting the sand to the fairgrounds four days before opening day.

The team shaped the six tiers of the sand cake by adding water and holding the outside of each layer together with boards of wood.

On opening day, the sculptors sat on the top layer to carve the frosting and the cake’s topper, “125.” Then they worked their way down, taking away the boards of wood from each tier.

To shape the cake and the animals, the sculptors used spoons, forks, paintbrushes, shovels and their bare hands.

“You actually don’t need special tools to do something like this,” Brandi said. “Greg blocks out the general shape, and I do the details like the eyes of the monkey and the fur of the sheep.”

While working eight to nine hour days for seven days a week on the sculpture, the sand artists weathered not only the sun but also some unexpected rain and humidity.

But rain or shine, the cake stood tall.

“The only thing the rain did was make it a little uncomfortable on us,” Brandi said. “But the weather would have to be severe in order to hurt the sculpture.”

Greg and Brandi’s next stop will be the Iowa State Fair, where they will create a 50-ton sand sculpture.

The OC Fair sculpture is located at Fair Square.