The Sapporo Snow Festival (Sapporo Yuki Matsuri) is held for a week every February in Hokkaido's capital Sapporo. It is one of Japan's largest winter events, attracting a growing number of visitors from Japan and abroad every year.

Every winter, about two million people come to Sapporo to see hundreds of beautiful snow statues and ice sculptures, which line in Odori Park, the grounds at Satoland, and the main street in Susukino.
For the seven days in February, these statues and sculptures (both large and small) turn Sapporo into a winter dreamland of crystal-like ice and white snow.

The Snow Festival began in 1950, when local high school students built six snow statues in Odori Park. In 1955, the Self-Defense Force joined in and built the very first massive snow sculpture, making the Snow Festival famous up till now. The Festival has grown from these humble beginnings to become one of the biggest and most well known of Hokkaido's winter events.The Snow Festival is considered to be a festival of international-caliber.