Snow Festival in Hokkaido is an annual festival held in Sapporo, Hokkaido. The festival lasts a week and takes place in the Susukino and Tsudome areas.

Festival history

Sapporo Snow Festival is usually held on the first week of February. Favorite activities are held during the last week of February and attracts a lot of people in the northern Wakkanai racing competition. Skiing is pulled by dogs, there are many people from all over the world who come here to register for the competition.

The Sapporo Snow Festival, which takes place every year at Odori Park, attracts around 2 million international visitors.

When coming to this festival, you will admire the beautiful and unique artworks sculpted from snow and ice, maybe the works that simulate famous wonders in the world, architectural works, playing fun games, playing with snow, admiring the shimmering, fanciful, looming scenery in the white snow. This is one of the largest festivals in the world held at Japan.

But the main place is Odori Park – about 1.5km from the center of Sapporo. Here, the huge ice and snow works with a width of more than 25m, higher than 15m are elaborately sculpted and majestic. Besides, there are more than hundreds of small statues.

And in Susukino – one of the largest entertainment centers in Sapporo, hundreds of ice sculptures are displayed, making the streets at night become more and more sparkling.

Coming to Tsudome, you can participate in events at the same time: skiing on the runways with many interesting and attractive forms of skiing, or admiring the sculptures of art …

The night light shows

Don’t leave the festival before it gets dark, as you will regret missing the opportunity to see the amazing light shows right on the giant snow statues. The show will start as soon as it gets dark, each lasting about 5-10 minutes. The surrounding large trees are decorated to suit the overall view, and the works everywhere in the park are also lit.