Arriving by air
The airports serving Sapporo and its region:
- New Chitose Airport CTS
Connections, terminals and transfer arrangements change — confirm them with the airline and the organiser rather than planning around a fixed transfer time.
All events & mapNew Year & winter lightSapporo Snow Festival 2027
Holidays & festivals · Event guide
How to plan for Sapporo Snow Festival 2027
The 77th Sapporo Snow Festival is scheduled for 4–11 February 2027 at Odori, Tsudome and Susukino. The organizer says admission to the three main venues is free; detailed 2027 programming on some venue pages is still pending.
- LocationSapporo, Japan · 77th edition
- Edition timing4–11 February 2027 · 77th festival at Odori, Tsudome and Susukino
- AccessFree admission to the three main venues
01 · Event details
Edition and venue
Timing: 4–11 February 2027 · 77th festival at Odori, Tsudome and Susukino
Venue or host area: Odori stretches from west 1-chome to west 11-chome; Tsudome is the Sapporo Sports Exchange Facility; Susukino follows the station-front street between Minami 4- and 6-jo. Sapporo Snow Sports Park at Premist Dome is a separate event on 12–14 February, not part of the three-venue festival.
Access: The organizer’s FAQ states admission to Odori, Tsudome and Susukino is free. There is no general-entry ticket or admission inventory to track. The linked Sapporo Snow Sports Park is a separate event with its own dates and terms. Confirm 2027 hours and activity details when the venue pages are updated.
02 · Plan the visit
Plan around the official access route
The official FAQ gives subway routes to Odori and Susukino and recommends the Toho Line to Sakaemachi, then a shuttle or walk to Tsudome. It advises grippy winter footwear or shoe grips on icy surfaces. NPO Tetote lists free wheelchair and walking assistance at all three venues for 2027, generally with reservations; this service does not establish that every path is step-free. Tsudome and Susukino pages still display 2026 detail and say 2027 information will follow, so recheck hours, attractions and local access notices.
- Confirm the edition: use the organiser’s latest date and venue announcement, not only a customary month.
- Confirm admission: check whether access is by purchase, ballot, qualification, application or free/public entry; do not assume a ticket includes every venue or session.
- Confirm local logistics: check current transport, accessibility, road closures and arrival instructions with the organiser and relevant local authority.
- Protect flexibility: compare cancellation terms before booking travel around a date or route that is not fully confirmed.
03 · Location
Getting to Sapporo
Hokkaido's capital is a grid-planned city built for snow, with wide streets, covered walkways and the Odori park spine at its centre.
The venue
Odori stretches from west 1-chome to west 11-chome; Tsudome is the Sapporo Sports Exchange Facility; Susukino follows the station-front street between Minami 4- and 6-jo. Sapporo Snow Sports Park at Premist Dome is a separate event on 12–14 February, not part of the three-venue festival.
The catalogue marker shows Sapporo, Japan · 77th edition at city or region level only — it is not an entrance, a gate, a course or a transfer route. For the event’s position among its category peers, open the New Year & winter light overview and map.
04 · Overview
What this event is
A winter festival in Sapporo, Hokkaido, held over eight days in early February across three sites: the snow sculptures in Odori Park, the ice-sculpture street in Susukino, and a snow-play and slide site at Tsudome. The Odori sculptures are built at architectural scale — some over 20 metres wide and several storeys high — with stages and light shows built into them.
Why it matters
Sapporo is the largest winter festival in Japan and the reason February is Hokkaido's peak tourist week. The sculptures are built by the Ground Self-Defence Force and corporate teams over weeks, using lorries of snow brought in from outside the city, and the event combines that engineering with a food and drink programme that runs the length of Odori Park.
History
The festival began in 1950, when local high-school students built six snow sculptures in Odori Park; it has been held annually since, apart from a few years of interruption, and grew into a three-venue event as it outgrew the park. The Susukino ice sculptures were added in the 1950s and Tsudome in the 2000s, and the 2027 edition is the 77th.
| First held | 1950 |
|---|---|
| Venues | Odori Park, Susukino, Tsudome |
| 2027 edition | 77th, 4–11 February |
| Scale | Sculptures over 20 m wide |
| City | Sapporo, Hokkaido |
05 · Research & credits
Sources and photo credit
Evidence and event information reviewed 2026-10-31. Published edition facts are separated from typical timing and historical context.
What we could not verify
- The Tsudome and Susukino venue pages identify their detailed schedules as 2026 content and say 2027 updates are expected from mid-December; do not carry forward 2026 hours, sculpture counts or activities.
- Free mobility assistance is available by request, but a complete 2027 step-free route map across the venues was not established by the support page.
- Local crowd controls, weather-related changes and transit operating detail should be checked with the organizer and transport operators closer to the festival.
- Sapporo Snow Festival — official 2027 (77th) dates and venue overview
- Sapporo Snow Festival — FAQ on admission, routes and winter footwear
- Sapporo Snow Festival — Tsudome venue page; detailed content marked 2026
- Sapporo Snow Festival — Susukino venue page; detailed content marked 2026
- NPO Tetote — 2027 mobility and walking assistance
Photo credit
- Sapporo Snow Festival 2027 — 禁樹なずな · 71th Sapporo Snow Festival Tube Sliders.jpg · CC BY-SA 4.0 · archival year 2020 · CSS-cropped to 16:10 cards and a 4:3 guide image
No affiliate links. This guide is for travel planning, not a guarantee of entry or event conditions.
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