Sapporo Snow Festivalさっぽろ雪まつり · Sapporo Yuki Matsuri

When and where

The Sapporo Snow Festival (さっぽろ雪まつり, Sapporo Yuki Matsuri) runs for eight days in early February. The 77th festival is scheduled from Thursday, February 4 to Thursday, February 11, 2027; the last day is National Foundation Day, a public holiday. The 76th festival in 2026 ran over the same dates.

The festival is spread across three sites in Sapporo:

• Odori site (大通会場): the main venue, along Odori Park from West 1-chome to West 11-chome. The statues are lit until 10 pm.
• Tsudome site (つどーむ会場): held at Tsudome, a city sports facility, and open during the day.
• Susukino site (すすきの会場): ice sculptures along Ekimae-dōri between Minami 4-jō and Minami 6-jō in the Susukino district.

What to see at Odori Park

The centerpiece is five large snow statues, placed at 4-, 5-, 7-, 8- and 10-chome. Each is the size of a building, and the subjects change every year. In 2026 one reproduced Hokkaido University's Furukawa Hall and was built by a Ground Self-Defense Force unit, and another was a 13-meter version of Kakkū, a hollow clay figurine of the Jōmon period that is a National Treasure. After dark, some of the large statues become screens for projection mapping.

Medium and small statues and winter attractions fill the blocks in between. The 11-chome block hosts the International Snow Sculpture Contest, and in 2027 the 2-chome block will host the Sapporo International Art Festival 2027.

Look out for the citizens' snow statues (市民雪像, shimin setsuzō), made by local groups. In 2026 there were 80 of them at 2-chome and 9-chome, and visitors voted for their favorites; the top groups earn a place in the next festival.

History

The festival began in 1950, when local junior and senior high school students displayed six snow statues in Odori Park. It now draws more than two million visitors from Japan and abroad, and it is Sapporo's biggest winter event.

Planning your visit

• Visit the Odori site after dark to see the lit statues, and again by day to see the carving in detail.
• Dress for snow and ice underfoot; almost everything is outdoors.
• Book accommodation early, as the festival brings large numbers of visitors to the city.
• In 2027 a linked event, Sapporo Snow Sports Park, runs from February 12 to 14 at Daiwa House Premist Dome, straight after the main festival.

Statue themes and site maps are announced by the organizers in the run-up to each festival, so check the official site for the final program.