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The Sapporo Snow Festival: The Untold Story behind the Sculptures
The Sapporo Snow Festival, one of the largest snow sculpture festivals in the world, transforms the city into a winter wonderland each year with hundreds of breathtaking snow and ice sculptures. Starting from humble beginnings as a student project 75 years ago, it has grown in scale to a major international event attracting people from Japan and abroad. Each year, the festival features around 200 sculptures – several of which tower over 12 meters tall – drawing 2 million visitors and generating a massive economic impact (In 2023, this was about 430 million dollars). These figures underscore the festivals stature as one of the most anticipated events in the Japanese calendar.
The statistics from behind the scenes are equally impressive – for example, it takes over 20000 tons of snow to build the sculptures, 3 months of planning and construction to make one large sculpture, and over 9000 people who help in the construction. They include the Japanese Defense Force, local companies, veteran staff, as well as international teams. The construction process is, in many ways, just as awe inspiring as the festival, however it is near impossible for visitors and even locals to get a glimpse behind the curtain. With that in mind, last year I decided to make a documentary following a snow sculpture team for several months to understand the ins and outs of how these towering snow creations are put together.
There are five teams for the major sculptures, and each are tasked with creating everything from anime scenes, horses to realistic historical buildings. I was given access to Sculpture Sub-Committee 3 (or as they liked to call themselves “Fujiwara & Hasegawa Gang”), and this year they were in charge of building a 12-meter-tall depiction of the famous Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany. The core team is a close-knit group of around ten people made up of experts, many of whom have been doing this for nearly 20 years. Throughout the year they have other jobs but come together every year in the winter to work on the sculptures. Hidenori Takagi, the vice-captain, works in artificial grass installation for most of the year, but he spends the winter months helping lead the team. He reflects “I have memories of coming to Sapporo as a young child and being blown away by the large snow sculptures at the festival. And so, when I was asked to help by a friend, I thought that I would love to be part of making something incredible – and well that was 17 years ago now!”
After spending the first month and a half in a small room in the city hall making multiple detailed designs and models, at the beginning of January, they start work on building the sculpture in Odori Park. It is not easy work. The team are outside in freezing temperatures for over 8 hours-a-day doing intense physical labour in the snow. However, every time I would go and visit the site, I was always so impressed by teams unabated passion and the positive atmosphere. Kazuyuki Suzuki, second section leader, tells me teamwork is everything. “You start to feel lost, cold; tiredness starts to creep up on you, your ability to think and concentrate begins to decline”, As Suzuki’s voice cracks, he adds, “But then in the midst of all that, so many people come and help you. It really is an amazing team.”
Of course, the snow sculptures wouldn’t be possible without a large number of passionate volunteers. Those I encountered ranged from a bubbly 16-year-old high school student who had come for the first time with her older sister, to a stoic 84-year-old pensioner who had been a volunteering for the festival for 20 years, to a gaggle of university students’ friends. It was beautiful to see new unlikely connections made across different generations and walks of life. Asking some newbies how they were finding it, I got varied answers from “it’s like playing in the snow” to “I am shocked by how detailed it is – it is so hard”, however the one thing that came up time and time again is how fun the experience is. From the young man called Tsuru who was literally jumping with positive energy when I spoke to him, to the older lady who told me she excited to have the opportunity to speak with young people, it felt like it was a meaningful community experience for everyone. As I am climbing down, Suzuki reminds me from the top of the scaffolding, “I mean, if we don’t have fun making it, it will come across in the sculpture.” I couldn’t wait to see how this fun community spirit would accumulate in the final art piece.
However, the process of making these towering snow creations is fraught with challenges caused by climate change and the rising temperatures in the city. “When I started (17years ago) global warming wasn’t as terrible and the temperatures tended to be low” Takagi tells me, “But these days, it can get up to 5/6 degrees, which melts the snow, and we lose all of our progress”. When I was filming, there were times when the heat made the snow to stop holding shape, causing progress to stall and wreaking havoc on work they had done. In the most dramatic instance, two days before the sculpture was due to be completed there was an incident where one of the snow towers suddenly bent 40 degrees. Luckily it was still just about salvable, but as Takagi says it highlights the urgent need to “to think about designs and sculptures that are sustainable and can be repaired within the short time that we have available.”
On the day of completion, the sun is shining, and the sky is a delicate shade of deep blue contrasting beautifully with the glistening white, majestic snow castle. It seems unbelievable that a group of people made this ethereal creation in less than a month. Takagi is teary-eyed, “Of course it is the most moving moment. I cried. We spent 28 days, or about 60 days if we include the design process, building this. That all culminates on the day the final scaffolding is removed. It really is emotional. And the weather is beautiful.”
It reminds me of conversation we had two weeks earlier in the middle of construction, when we were standing on the top of the half-made sculpture in the middle of a snowstorm. I am shaking from the cold, as I wipe the snow out of my camera lens, while Takagi finishes explaining the basics of snow sculpture making to me.
“It really is the most fun – I don’t think there is anything in the world as fun as this. I will probably continue doing it my whole life.”
“Until your 90?”, I ask, teasingly.
“Will I be able to do it at 90? Ok – let’s say the goal is 90 or even 100!”
Despite all the difficulties and the challenges ahead, I, for one, hope the snow festival will still be going on when Takagi is 100.
A year has now passed since I made the documentary, and we are fast approaching the 2025 Sapporo Snow Festival season (Scheduled for Feb 4th – 11th 2025). Once again, the local sculpture making teams are coming together in the spirit of community to make incredible larger than life, detailed sculptures out of snow. This truly special event is a once in a lifetime experience, that needs to be seen with the naked eye to be believed.
If you are interested in finding out more about the Sapporo Snow Festival, please check out the documentary in the link below. This year, the festival will be held February 4th-11th 2025 and we will be covering the behind the scenes process and the festival in real time on the visit.sapporo Instagram. For the official Sapporo Snow Festival Website and details about all the areas of the festival, check out the link below.
Sapporo Snow Festival Documentary
Official Sapporo Snow Festival Website
https://www.snowfes.com/en/
Instagram @visit.sapporo