Preparations for the 76th Sapporo Snow Festival (Feb 4-11, 2026) are progressing steadily now.
This festival has its origin in1950 when secondary school students from Sapporo, guided by their art teachers, created six snow sculptures in the 7th block of Odori Park which was then a snow dumping ground.

Fun programs such as snowball fights, dog sled races, and folk dancing were also held during this three-day event, attracting approximately 50,000 visitors (Sapporo’s population that year was a little over 310,000) and proving it a big success, thus making it an annual event the following year.
To scale up this festival, the Japan Self-Defense Forces (SDF) began participating in1955, as a part of their “Civil Cooperation”.
The large-size snow sculptures (12 -15 meter high in the Odori venue, equivalent to the 4th or 5th floor of an average Japanese office building) constructed by them with different themes and designs each year have been seen as masterpieces of the festival that bring together the skills and expertise cultivated by the SDF, in the fields of transportation, cold-season field training, and civil engineering.

Even after Sapporo became a globally recognized city in a cold region for having hosted the Winter Olympics in 1972, the festival has kept evolving, including introduction of the International Snow Sculpture Contest, addition of other venues with different purposes (e.g. snow playpark, exhibition of artistic ice sculptures), projection mapping on the snow sculpture, to mention a few.
Looking back, this festival has also faced challenges at times, such as high fuel prices that made transportation of sufficient volume of fresh and pure snow difficult, unexpected warm days during the event causing sculptures to partially melt, and the inevitable
online-only events due to the covid-19 pandemic with no construction of large sculptures.
However, last year 2025 saw an attendance of approximately 2.32 million visitors (three venues altogether), showing a strong recovery nearing pre-pandemic numbers.

As the event approaches, making of small snow sculptures （2nd & 9th block) by citizen group which is considered the festival’s roots, intensifies. On the opening day, the International Snow Sculpture Contest begins in the 11th block. Each team must complete a highly creative snow sculpture of their own design within the three-day time limit, utilizing their utmost skill. (Both are in Odori venue)
Please thoroughly prepare yourselves for the cold/wet/slippery condition of Sapporo in February and enjoy it to the fullest!

 
K. Mina