Sand art on a massive scale -- a jovial activity that rarely moves inland -- will be the highlight of the 35th Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival at Twin Lakes Park, east of Greensburg, which begins today and continues through Sunday.

The free festival will also feature PBS canine star RAGGS, solar glass fusion artist Curt Sell, 230 artists and craftsmen, 42 food vendors, more than 90 performances on four stages, a children's area and a fine arts exhibition.

Brit Paul Hoggard and Netherlander Remy Geerts, master sand sculptors who have created goliath gorillas and marching armies using just sand and water, will complete a 25-ton sculpture during the festival's run. It's the first stop on the couple's U.S. itinerary, and their first visit to Western Pennsylvania.

The couple have created sculptures in Virginia and Washington, as well as on Canada's East and West Coasts, and are among about 80 such artists in the world, all of whom know each other.

"We are some sort of nomadic clan who travels from event to event to create our sand art," they said by e-mail this week.

Some are commissions. Others are large contests such as the North American Sandsculpting Championship in Virginia Beach. Geerts, who has an engineering degree, also sculpts ice, snow and clay, and paints murals.

The festival piece will have a patriotic theme, a nod to the July Fourth weekend. At times Hoggard and Geerts work with others, as they will do next in Milwaukee where they'll complete a 150-ton, 20-foot-long Pinnochio book for the Wisconsin Italian Festival.

That the finely detailed, large sculptures are ephemeral is fine with the artists, who see that as part of a life cycle.

"The sculptures exist for an hour, a day or a few weeks depending for which occasion we create them. And then they go back to nature. The sea will take the sculpture or the wind evaporates the water and all that remains is a pile of sand."

"Some of our sculptures are spread out over the grass to help it restore better, after a festival is held, for example. The sand of one of our sculptures has been used in the cement of a building, and there is sand of a sculpture under a new road in Holland."

The couple say they have been inseparable since they met in a Belgian sand sculpture park in 2003. For the past year they've lived "a simple, sustainable life," growing their own organic fruit and vegetables on their farm in the Bulgarian village of Mihajlovo.

"We like living in our rural village in beautiful Bulgaria, on the edge of the Balkan mountain range. We have 60 fruit and nut trees in our garden, and grape vines. This summer, we did not let a lot of fruit go to waste. We made [preserves], jams, chutneys and sauces. It is great to be able to grow, harvest and eat your own food, it tastes sooo good, and we can recommend that to everybody!"

Also at the festival

Festival foods range from funnel cakes to gourmet cakes, kielbasa with kraut to veggie wraps; the artist market is inclusive, from blacksmithing to woodworking. The Backyard Circus is back for the youngsters, and the Urban Art (Graffiti) Experience returns for teens. And don't miss the Westmoreland Art Nationals exhibition for some impressive fine arts.

You can learn to play fiddle, bones and spoons from the Lowlander Highlanders; talk 19th-century battle hardships at the 11th Pennsylvania Regiment Civil War encampment; watch chainsaw carvers at work; and learn about a historic gristmill, weaving and stained-glass making from the Benedictine monks of Saint Vincent Archabbey.

Music highlights include these 6:30 p.m. acts on the Island Stage: NoBadJuJu, eclectic mix of classic blues, R&B, soul and rock (Thursday); Pittsburgh Doo Wop Big Band, tunes of the '50s, '60s and '70s (Friday); Pittsburgh's Own New Holiday, songs from the 1950s through the '80s (Saturday); and Chris Higbee Project, bluegrass to old and modern country from a group headed by Povertyneck Hillbillies former fiddle player and founder (Sunday).

The Old Time Fiddler's Contest will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday on the Laurel Stage.

The festival hasn't been spared the economic woes all arts groups have been facing. But it pulled through with the help of hundreds of members of its longtime dedicated volunteer corps.

"We worked harder and longer to make sure we could bring it to the public," said executive director Diana Morreo.

Donations dropped into the giant crayon containers spread about the grounds will ensure that it returns next year.

Parking on site is limited, but shuttle buses and wheelchair-accessible vans will run from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily from the University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg (exit the Pennsylvania Turnpike at Irwin, go east on Route 30 about 9 miles to the Greensburg-Mt. Pleasant Road exit, follow signs) and Saint Vincent College (off Route 30 just west of the Latrobe Airport). Round trip $2, under 10 years old free.

Information: 724-834-7474 or http://www.artsandheritage.com".