From the very beginning, when quartz and came to the surface, it was used to clean floors. It was sold from house to house by horse and cart. It didn’t take long before lines and figures were drawn in the scattered sand. Later on coloured sand was added and the first sand carpets were born! This was the start of the “art of sand-strewing”. Lommel Tourism wants to sustain this tradition and to preserve it for the future.
In 1980 the first sand carpets were made and the first sand-carpet contest was organised for youngsters, amateurs and artists. Each year the contest stood in the sign of a particular theme.

From 1995 on, a large sand-carpet of 100 m² was strewn in the Lommel Cultural Centre. Walter Engelen, together with Theo Grobben were the real pioneers.
At the 2002 sand sculpture festival in Zeebrugge a sand-carpet of not less than 160 m² was strewn. Without the help of other “strewers” like Marc Beliën and Rita Creemers, the strewing of such a large sand-carpet is a hopeless task.