The Sapporo Snow Festival is a festival that for more than seven decades has transformed Sapporo into a magical city filled with incredible sculptures, vibrant colors, concerts, and theater performances, and, of course, a huge number of guests. After all, the Snow Festival is one of the most famous events in Japan, which is popular outside the country.

The history of the festival began modestly and almost imperceptibly. In 1950, a group of high school students, for their own pleasure and entertainment, built snow sculptures in Odori Park: they were cute animals with no particular artistic value but made with love and a desire to decorate the park. Children and adults came to see the beautiful snow sculptures. And when the sculptures melted, the students were not lazy and made new ones. So, during the whole winter, there were beautiful snow characters, buildings, and just decorative ornaments in the main park of the city.

The following year, local artists joined the students. And at the beginning of February, almost the entire park was filled with works of art.

In 1955, the military joined such a popular holiday. They built the first large sculpture in the history of the future festival – the snow house. In 1972, when the 11 Winter Olympics were held in Sapporo, guests from other countries learned about this local entertainment. They also wanted to take part in a winter activity. And, in 1974, the holiday became official and gained international status.

Today, every year, in late January-early February, a large number of participating teams from all over the world come to Sapporo to create their incredible masterpieces from snow and ice. More than 500 sculptures adorn the city during the festival. There are small figures of animals and huge copies of historic buildings and monuments. And more than two million tourists come from their countries to admire this beauty and support the participants.