ALYS BEACH, Fla., May 6 /PRNewswire/ -- A Florida beach resort town will host a unique festival on Labor Day weekend.

"Digital Graffiti at Alys Beach" was created to celebrate and promote the world's most talented and innovative digital artists. But the event has a very unusual twist.

"We're inviting digital artists from around the world to project their original artwork onto our town's famous white walls," said Kelli Arnold, Alys Beach's Events Coordinator. "Our entire town will literally become their blank canvas."

Sometimes referred to as "Photon Bombing," "Guerilla Projection," "Projection Bombing" or "Urban Projection," underground artists around the globe have already been using the latest design, animation and projection technologies to cast their images onto skyscrapers and other urban structures, as a means of artistic expression.

"Some of the talent that we're finding is truly stunning," said Arnold.

To help lure that talent, Alys Beach has announced numerous award categories and over $5,000 in cash prizes, including a $2,500 "Best of Show" award. A certain number of qualified artists may also be eligible for cash stipends to help them attend the event.

The festival will be hosted by several celebrity and industry expert judges, including Alan Hunter -- MTV's very first "VeeJay," co-host of the "Big 80's" channel on Sirius Satellite Radio, and co-founder of the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival, and Warren Heaton, an award-winning digital media artist and UCLA professor, whose film, video and interactive media projects include such clients as Adobe, Aquantive Microsoft, Concorde-New Horizons, DirecTV, Motor Entertainment and Walt Disney Imagineering.

Artists are encouraged to submit their original works of digital art for consideration as soon as possible. Entries may include new or existing abstract digital imagery, short films, photography, VJ sets, animations, YouTube videos, Adobe PhotoShop creations or entirely new interactive concepts. All subject matter is eligible for the festival, although a special $1,000 prize will be awarded to the best entry with a "green" or environmental theme. The deadline for all submissions is Friday, July 11, 2008. The festival will be held on the evening of Saturday, August 30, 2008.

Alys Beach is located in Florida's panhandle on Scenic Highway 30A, between Destin and Panama City Beach, along what The New York Times said "may be the best beach in the continental U.S." In April, Forbes.com named Alys Beach America's "Best Spot for the Design-Savvy."

For more information about Digital Graffiti at Alys Beach, visit http://www.alysbeach.com/DG , call toll-free 1-866-481-8387, or email events@alysbeach.com .

ABOUT ALYS BEACH

One of the most beautiful new towns in the world, Alys Beach's extraordinary architectural vision drew inspirations from both Bermuda and the family courtyard homes of Antigua, Guatemala. When complete, the town will be home to over 600 villas, rowhouses, courtyard homes and family compound retreats, as well as numerous restaurants, parks and shops. All homes in Alys Beach are built to Fortified ... For Safer Living(R) building standards, as certified by the Institute for Business & Home Safety, and are also built to the Green Home Designation Standard of the Florida Green Building Coalition.

"Alys Beach may be the most truly innovative community under construction in the United States today, and it will eventually be imitated everywhere," said Andres Duany, who was ranked one of the Top 5 most influential people in home building by Builder magazine.

For sales or rental information, please call 866-481-8387 or visit http://www.alysbeach.com/ .

CONTACT: Mike Ragsdale of Alys Beach, +1-850-419-5068,
mike@alysbeach.com

Web site: http://www.alysbeach.com/
http://www.alysbeach.com/DG