Sapporo snow festival
Each year, around 2 million people visit Hokkaido’s capital city Sapporo to see the hundreds of handcrafted snow and ice sculptures that have graced the Sapporo Snow Festival since its inception in 1950.
At the inaugural event there were just six sculptures, all handmade by local high school students. But ever since the city hosted the Winter Olympic Games in 1972, the event has grown in both size and stature. Its reputation was enhanced a few years later by the introduction of an international snow sculpting competition, during which teams from a number of countries around the globe tried their collective hands at chiseling snow into creative shapes and forms.
This year marks the 61st snow festival, which will be held between February 5 and 11 in three main locations: Odori Park, Suskino and Tsudome.