A festival dedicated to the art of sand could become a regular feature of the summer calendar after attracting a record number of visitors.

In the past six weeks, about 200,000 people have toured The World Sand Sculpture Festival at Black Rock in Brighton, where 60 international artists have built an array of towering designs.

The exhibition opened in July and will remain on the seafront until September 11, featuring a 50ft high temple, mummies and a recreation of Tutenkhamun made from sand.

An endorsement from city mayor Bob Carden has prompted negotiations for the event to return next year.

A festival spokeswoman said: "Even some of the wetter weather over the past few weeks hasn't put people off and the sunny weather we're getting at the moment means we've been inundated.

"The Mayor of Brighton wrote us a great letter saying how much he enjoyed the event and how keen he is for us to come back and we're now seriously considering bringing the event back to Brighton next year."

Artists from Russia, America and Germany were among those presented with 10,000 tons or 500 lorryloads of imported sand to complete the works which stretch across 40,000sqft of Brighton Marina.

The sand sculptures can be seen daily from 11am to 8pm.