With temperatures holding steady in the mid-80s teased by a light breeze, festivalgoers would be hard pressed to ask for better weather than Sunday’s.

About the only thing that conceivably could be said to be missing from the summer (well, late spring) fun was the ocean. After all, music and beaches always have been easy companions, and even if we can lay claim to the beauty of the Tennessee River, Chattanooga still suffers from an acute lack of coastline.

Fortunately, the Tennessee Valley Credit Union’s Riverbend Beach comes as close to bringing the ocean experience to Chattanooga as is possible without massive breakthroughs in teleportation technology.

In addition to Tiki Hut decor and the Creative Discovery Museum’s massive sandbox, the highlights of the TVCU beach have to be the granulated depictions of the headlining artists emerging Mount Rushmore-like from 150 tons of sand donated by Monteagle Sand and Gravel.

So far, sculptors Mark Mason, Larry Hudson and Pat Harsch, of Sarasota, Fla.’s Team Sandtastic, have been working so quickly that they’re already way ahead of schedule.

They were scheduled to craft the likenesses in time with the day of the artist’s performance, but working with just sand and water, the trio have sculpted so rapidly that by Sunday afternoon, Steven Curtis Chapman (Tuesday’s headliner) was practically finished.

“I think it takes everyone back to their childhood when they made sand sculptures,” said Mr. Mason, who has been making sculptures professionally for 18 years. “Now, they’re seeing it taken to the next level.”

Every day, I’ve seen people gathering to watch the artists at work, and considering it’s on a steep hill descending from the Unum Stage toward the Market Place, that’s saying something.

TVCU came up with the idea of bringing the beach to Chattanooga when Habitat for Humanity was unable to collect enough funds for another build blitz this year. During the builds, people might stop momentarily to watch construction, but after the walls went up, there wasn’t much visible progress, TVCU President and CEO Blake Strickland said.

With that and the state of the economy in mind, the credit union saw an opportunity to get people to slow down and enjoy a taste of the vacations they might have to forgo this year, Mr. Strickland said.

“Pretty much the whole evening, you have three or four folks there taking pictures,” he said. “The response from the crowd has just been great.”

Early in the evening Sunday, Tim Larson and his wife, Tammy, were admiring the sculptures with their sons James and John. The elder Larsons were discussing what should happen to the sculptures when the festival concludes, and Ms. Larson suggested letting dozens of kids do what they do best and stomp it into oblivion.

That seems like an awful waste of a lot of hard work, to me, but Mr. Mason said when you work with sand, you make peace with its impermanence.

Whether the Larsons’ idea comes to fruition or not, the sand will be donated to Chickamauga, Ga., for use in its athletic fields. Along with the dedicated recycling stations, that’s just one more way Riverbend is being greener this year — or does this count as a beige initiative?