Sapporo, Japan

You Should Know This

Hokkaido is renowned for it's festivals all year round. Here's the main ones to check out.

Sapporo Snow Festival

The Sapporo Snow Festival is the most well-known festival in Sapporo but there’s a bunch of other festivals all throughout the year that you might consider coinciding your visit with. Here’s a look at some of the more popular ones starting with the Sapporo Snow Festival.

The Sapporo Snow Festival attracts millions of visitors locally and internationally and is being held Feb 5-12th February in 2018. Check the official website for subsequent years’s dates.  The main action happens at Odori Park, right smack in the middle of downtown Sapporo and stretches about 12 blocks with each block having a different theme. From massive ice and snow sculptures of Star Wars, Whales, Trains, Buildings and the like to ice skating, to snowboard jumping, tube slides and snow rafts, there’s quite a few attractions at the Sapporo Snow Festival to check out and it’s all quite interesting and entertaining.

Sapporo Snow Festival 2

 

Sapporo Snow Festival is one of Japan’s most popular festivals and it can get quite busy but as with most things in Japan that are busy, usually it remains civilised and manageable.  It opens at 9:00a.m and closes around 4 or 5 (depending on the attraction).  Block 11 is reserved for International “artists” and is usually quite popular. From mid November to late December the city also has some lights which are pretty but not amazingly pretty.

Sapporo Snow Festival 3

In May the Sapporo Lilac Festival signifies the start of early summer and is also in Odori Park (which has about 400 Lilac trees). There’s a music festival, outdoor tea ceremony, stamp rally and wine garden with bites to eat.  In June the Hokkaido Shrine Festival (also known as the Sapporo Festival).  Thousands line the streets from Hokkaido Shrine in Maruyama to central Sapporo to see the  colourful Heian period costumes and four mikoshi portable shrines as well as eight floats.  Traditional dedication ceremonies take place at the shrine where a lot of festival stalls are also set up.

Sapporo Snow Festival 4

Send us any questions or comments you have about the Sapporo Snow Festival or other festivals in Sapporo via email or ask us on twitter.