The Sapporo Snow Festival takes place every year for a week in early February across three main sites: Odori Park, Tsudome and Susukino. As the name implies, this festival is all about snow and ice sculptures.

The festival’s main site is Odori Park. Here, you’ll find most of the snow and ice sculptures, as well as plenty of warm drinks and food choices. The ice sculptures can be over 15 meters tall and 25 meters wide.

The second-largest site is Tsudome, which includes a variety of snowy activities as well as snow slides, snow rafting and family-oriented diversions, is open from February 1st—a few days earlier than the main venue. Although the Susukino site is the smallest, it features about 100 ice sculptures and is the location of the Ice Sculpture Contest.

Although the snow festival typically attracts two million visitors each year, organizers are proposing a scaled down “living with Corona” event for 2022, following cancelation of the 2021 edition.

Entry to the venues is free.