The Sapporo Snow Festival 2027 runs from Thursday, February 4 to Thursday, February 11, 2027, a national holiday, at three sites in Sapporo: Odori Park in the centre of the city, the Susukino entertainment district, and Tsudome, a sports dome in Higashi Ward. The organising committee has published those dates for all three. At Odori, snow sculptures line the park from the West 1 to the West 11 blocks and are lit until 10 pm; at Susukino, ice sculptures stand along the main street and are lit until 11 pm; Tsudome is open from 10 am to 4 pm. Entry to all three is free, the festival says. In 2026 the festival counted 2,539,000 visitors at Odori and Tsudome over eight days, the most since 2020, as the Hokkaido Shimbun reported. This year there is a second reason to come: the Sapporo International Art Festival, held once every three years, runs from January 16 to February 21, 2027, and has its own section in Odori Park during the festival.
Below are the dates and hours of each site, how the festival began, the art festival, two quieter evenings outside the city at Otaru and Lake Shikotsu, where to stay, and what February in Sapporo asks of you. We read the festival's own pages, the Sapporo tourism association, Sapporo City, the Hokkaido tourism organisation, the Japan Meteorological Agency, JR Hokkaido, the Hokkaido Shimbun, an art magazine, a hotel group and a booking service again on November 2, 2026, and did not contact the festival, the hotels or anyone else; the sources are listed at the end. The festival says the 2027 programme, the sculptures and the site maps, will be published from mid December 2026, so details below marked 2026 are last year's, as a guide. For Hokkaido beyond February, see Hokkaido Honeymoon: Summer or Winter, and Where to Stay (2027) →.
Key points
- All three sites run from February 4 to 11, 2027. Odori is lit until 10 pm, Susukino until 11 pm (10 pm on the last day in 2026), and Tsudome opens from 10 am to 4 pm.
- Entry is free and there are no seats or tickets for the sculptures. The 2027 sculptures and maps will be published from mid December 2026.
- The Sapporo International Art Festival 2027 runs from January 16 to February 21, 2027, at eleven venues, with a section in Odori Park from February 4 to 21.
- Otaru's Snow Light Path is listed for February 6 to 13, 2027, and the Chitose-Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival for January 30 to February 23, 2027.
- Sapporo averages minus 2.7°C in February, with a daily high of 0.4°C. Hokkaido has charged an accommodation tax since April 1, 2026.
ASK US ABOUT THE SNOW FESTIVAL →
THE 2027 DATES AND THE THREE SITES
The festival's site gives the same eight days for every site, from Thursday, February 4 to Thursday, February 11, 2027, which is National Foundation Day. The hours below are those printed on each site's page for 2027. The contents of each site, the number of sculptures and the evening events are still the 2026 ones on the festival's pages; the committee says the 2027 contents will be updated from mid December 2026.
| Site | Where | 2027 dates | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Odori | Odori Park, West 1 to West 11 blocks | February 4 to 11 | Lit until 10 pm |
| Susukino | Ekimae-dori, between South 4 and South 6 streets | February 4 to 11 | Lit until 11 pm |
| Tsudome | Sapporo Community Dome, Higashi Ward | February 4 to 11 | 10 am to 4 pm |
Odori is the festival most people picture. In 2026 it held five large snow sculptures, built in the 4, 5, 7, 8 and 10 blocks, among them a Hokkaido University building for the university's 150th year and Tsuruga Castle in Aizu, with medium and small sculptures between them, projection mapping on the large ones after dark, and 80 sculptures made by local groups in the 2 and 9 blocks. Susukino is the ice site: in 2026 it lined 60 ice sculptures along the street, including the entries of an ice carving contest and the much photographed sculptures with fish frozen inside. In 2026 the street was closed to cars from 3 pm on weekdays and from 10 am at weekends so that visitors could walk among the sculptures. Tsudome is the family site, with snow slides and rafting, an indoor area with food stalls, and no parking at all; the festival runs a shuttle bus from Sakaemachi subway station, which is about 15 minutes away on foot.
At Odori the sculptures stand in the open park, and the walk from the 1 block, under the TV Tower, to the 11 block is about one and a half kilometres. The park is open at any hour during the festival, so the sculptures can be seen in daylight and again after dark. The festival's own advice is about the ground: paths are usually frozen, so wear winter soles with deep grooves or buy slip-on grips, about ¥1,000 a pair at the official shop at Odori, convenience stores and station kiosks, and the official shop lends walking poles free of charge.
HOW THE FESTIVAL BEGAN
The festival tells its own story on its history page. In 1950, students from three high schools and two junior high schools set out six snow statues in Odori Park, on the 7 block, which was then where residents dumped the snow cleared from their roofs. There was a snowball fight and a dog race, and about 50,000 people came. In 1953 a statue 15 metres high appeared for the first time. From 1955 the Self-Defense Forces joined in to build the largest statues, which they still do: in August 2026 the mayor of Sapporo asked the Ground Self-Defense Force to help again with the large sculptures for the 77th festival in 2027.
The 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo carried the festival abroad. In 1974, a year when the oil shock left the trucks that carry the snow short of fuel and builders filled statues with oil drums to save snow, the International Snow Sculpture Contest began, with teams from cities linked to Sapporo. The Susukino site with its ice sculptures was added in 1983, the festival grew to seven days in 1987, and since 2009 its second site has been Tsudome. The festival now describes itself as an event that draws more than two million visitors from Japan and abroad.
THE SAPPORO INTERNATIONAL ART FESTIVAL 2027
In 2027 the snow festival falls inside a second, longer event. The Sapporo International Art Festival, known as SIAF, is held once every three years in public buildings, parks and underground spaces around the city. Its 2027 edition runs from Saturday, January 16 to Sunday, February 21, 2027, under the theme PLANET SNOW, with the Ainu words upas mintar and upas nociw. The Sapporo tourism association lists eleven venues in all. Four keep their own dates: the Sapporo Science Center from January 5, the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art from January 9 to April 11 (planned), the Sapporo Odori 500-m Gallery, an underground passage, from January 16 to March 24, and a SIAF section inside the snow festival's Odori site from February 4 to 21.
For a visitor this changes the shape of the trip. The sculptures are seen in an evening or two, and the art festival fills the days between them, mostly indoors, with venues reached by subway or a short drive. Some venues close on certain days, the association notes, so a day at the museums is worth planning around their calendars once the full programme is out.
OTARU AND LAKE SHIKOTSU
Two winter evenings outside the city are quieter than Odori. In Otaru, the old port town on the coast west of Sapporo, the Snow Light Path sets candles in snow lanterns along the canal and the disused Temiya railway line. The Sapporo tourism association lists the 2027 event for Saturday, February 6 to Saturday, February 13, 2027. For 2026, the Hokkaido tourism organisation gave the lighting hours as 5 pm to 9 pm, with free entry and no parking provided by the organisers. JR Hokkaido runs trains from Otaru through Sapporo to New Chitose Airport, the fastest in 73 minutes.
The second is at Lake Shikotsu, a deep caldera lake inside a national park, about 40 minutes by car from New Chitose Airport. The Chitose-Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival builds its sculptures by spraying the lake's own water over frames until it freezes; by day the ice keeps the blue the organisers call Shikotsu blue, and after dark it is lit in colours. The Hokkaido tourism organisation lists the 2027 festival from January 30 to February 23, 2027, open daily from 10 am to 8 pm, with lighting from 4:30 pm. Entry is charged, and free for children of primary school age and under. The organisers note that the contents, hours and prices can change from year to year.
WHERE TO STAY
The Hokkaido Shimbun described central Sapporo as short of hotels for affluent travellers when the InterContinental Sapporo opened on October 1, 2025, on the east side of Nakajima Park, south of Susukino. The Hokkaido Shimbun reported that its top suite, the Serenity Suite of about 160 square metres, was priced from ¥450,000 a night at opening.
At Lake Shikotsu, the Tsuruga group opened Shikotsu-ko Tsuruga Bessou Kohaku no Sho on August 10, 2026, with 24 rooms in a white palette after the moonlight on the lake. The group describes its neighbour, Shikotsu-ko Tsuruga Bessou Ao no Za, with 25 rooms, as the finest of its resorts. The booking service Relux lists every room at Kohaku no Sho with its own hot-spring bath, and notes that there is no large shared bath. A night at the lake before or after Sapporo puts the ice festival on your doorstep and the airport about 40 minutes away.
Two taxes are added to the room in Hokkaido. Since April 1, 2026, Hokkaido has charged an accommodation tax per person per night, by the room rate: ¥100 up to ¥19,999, ¥200 from ¥20,000 to ¥49,999, and ¥500 from ¥50,000, as the Relux listing for Kohaku no Sho sets out. Hot-spring inns add a bathing tax, ¥150 a night per adult there.
THE COLD AND THE CROWDS
February is Sapporo's coldest season. The Japan Meteorological Agency's averages for 1991 to 2020 give a February mean of minus 2.7°C, a daily high of 0.4°C and a daily low of minus 6.2°C. Evenings at Odori are spent standing on packed snow, so warm boots with a grip, a hat and gloves matter more than anything else you pack. Tsudome asks that everyone using its slides wear a hat and gloves.
The crowds follow the calendar. In 2027 the festival opens on a Thursday and ends on the holiday on Thursday, February 11, with the weekend of February 6 and 7 in between. The festival's own counts show how busy it is: 2,539,000 visitors in 2026, against 2,327,000 in 2025. If your dates allow, choose weekday evenings for Odori and Susukino, away from the weekend and the closing holiday, and see Odori once more by daylight.
Getting in is simple. JR Hokkaido's airport trains link New Chitose Airport and Sapporo Station in 33 minutes at the fastest, with a fare of ¥1,230, and the festival gives the subway stations: Odori for the Odori site, Susukino for the Susukino site, and Sakaemachi, with a shuttle bus, for Tsudome. Roads near the sites are closed to traffic in the evenings, and Tsudome has no place even to drop passengers off, so a car will bring you close and the last stretch is on foot.
WHERE STAYGO COMES IN
STAYGO plans private trips across Japan. If your trip includes early February, tell us, and we will help you choose your evenings at Odori and Susukino on the quieter days, and plan the rest around them: rooms in Sapporo and, if you like, a night at Lake Shikotsu, a driver from New Chitose Airport and between the sites, a guide for the art festival once its programme is out, an evening at Otaru's lanterns, and dinner tables near the ice. The sculptures themselves need no tickets, and nobody can hold a place in front of them, so we do not offer that. February rooms in Sapporo fill early, so we start with the hotels. We arrange everything in your names, and you pay the hotels, restaurants, guides and drivers directly at their own prices, with no commission or markup from us. Trips are planned on the Signature plan, for 7 to 14 days, or as Bespoke for longer or more complex journeys.
SOURCES AND HOW WE CHECKED
We read the pages below on November 2, 2026: the festival's own pages for the 2027 dates and hours and its history; Sapporo City and the Sapporo tourism association for the 77th festival, SIAF2027 and Otaru; the Hokkaido tourism organisation for the ice festival and Otaru's 2026 hours; the Japan Meteorological Agency for the weather; JR Hokkaido for the airport trains; the Hokkaido Shimbun for visitor numbers and the new hotel; an art magazine for SIAF; and a hotel group and a booking service for Lake Shikotsu. We did not contact the festival, the hotels or anyone else. Where a detail is from 2026, the text says so.
- Sapporo Snow Festival, official site (Japanese): the 2027 dates for all three sites
- Sapporo Snow Festival, Odori site (Japanese): lighting until 10 pm, the 2026 large sculptures, the 80 local sculptures, the 2027 contents from mid December
- Sapporo Snow Festival, Susukino site (Japanese): lighting until 11 pm, 60 ice sculptures in 2026, the pedestrian hours in 2026
- Sapporo Snow Festival, Tsudome site (Japanese): 10 am to 4 pm, the shuttle bus, no parking, hats and gloves
- Sapporo Snow Festival, frequently asked questions (Japanese): free entry at all sites, the hours, grips and free walking poles, the subway stations
- Sapporo Snow Festival, history (Japanese): 1950, 1953, 1955, 1972, 1974, 1983, 1987 and 2009
- Sapporo City, the mayor's request to the Ground Self-Defense Force, August 25, 2026 (Japanese): the 77th festival in February 2027
- Sapporo Tourism Association, Sapporo International Art Festival 2027 (Japanese): dates, theme, eleven venues and the four venues with their own dates
- Sapporo Tourism Association, event list (Japanese): Otaru Snow Light Path on February 6 to 13, 2027, and the ice festival dates
- Tokyo Art Beat, on SIAF2027 (Japanese): the art festival's 2027 edition
- Hokkaido Tourism Organization, Chitose-Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival (Japanese): 2027 dates, hours, lighting, charges and the drive from the airport
- Hokkaido Tourism Organization, Otaru Snow Light Path (Japanese): the 2026 lighting hours, free entry and no parking
- Japan Meteorological Agency, Sapporo averages 1991 to 2020 (Japanese): February mean, high and low
- JR Hokkaido, airport trains (Japanese): 33 minutes at the fastest, ¥1,230, Otaru to the airport in 73 minutes
- Hokkaido Shimbun, February 11, 2026 (Japanese): 2,539,000 visitors in 2026, the most since 2020
- Hokkaido Shimbun, September 29, 2025 (Japanese): the InterContinental Sapporo opening on October 1, 2025, and its top suite
- Tsuruga Group, hotels (Japanese): Kohaku no Sho opening on August 10, 2026, its 24 rooms, and Ao no Za's 25 rooms
- Relux, Shikotsu-ko Tsuruga Bessou Kohaku no Sho (Japanese): a hot-spring bath in every room, no shared bath, Hokkaido's accommodation tax and the bathing tax
QUESTIONS TRAVELLERS ASK
When is the Sapporo Snow Festival in 2027?
From Thursday, February 4 to Thursday, February 11, 2027, at all three sites: Odori, Susukino and Tsudome. The festival's site gave those dates on November 2, 2026.
What time are the sculptures lit?
The festival gives the lighting at Odori as lasting until 10 pm and at Susukino until 11 pm. In 2026 Susukino's lights went off at 10 pm on the last day. Tsudome is open from 10 am to 4 pm.
Do I need tickets?
No. All three sites are free and there are no seats or tickets for the sculptures. Some activities at the sites, and the Chitose-Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival, charge their own fees.
Is the art festival on at the same time?
Yes. The Sapporo International Art Festival 2027 runs from January 16 to February 21, 2027, at eleven venues, and has a section inside the snow festival's Odori site from February 4 to 21.
How cold is it?
The Japan Meteorological Agency gives Sapporo a February mean of minus 2.7°C, with an average high of 0.4°C and low of minus 6.2°C. Boots with a good grip, a hat and gloves are the essentials.
ASK US ABOUT THE SNOW FESTIVAL
Send us your February dates and how you would like to spend them. We will suggest the evenings for Odori and Susukino, ask the hotels in Sapporo and at Lake Shikotsu, a driver and a guide what they can do, and come back with what we were able to confirm.
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