Undoubtedly, the kindest and most joyful festivals in the world can be called those whose founders were children. The Sapporo Snow Festival or Sapporo Snow Festival is one of these festivals.
The reason for the annual snow festival was the initiative of local middle and high school schoolchildren, who in the winter of 1950 built 6 figures from snow in the central park of Sapporo. In addition to the exhibition of snow figures, this year a snowball fight was held in the park and the — carnival, these events, unusual for Sapporo, brought more than 50 thousand people to the opening of the festival.
Since then, the festival has made Sapporo famous, become the hallmark of the winter city, and very soon became an extremely popular event throughout Japan.
In 1953, a 15-meter-high snow figure — Shoten (Rising to Heaven) was built for the first time. In 1955, the Japanese Self-Defense Forces took part in the festival; thanks to their help, the festival was held on an unprecedented scale. In 1959, on the 10th anniversary of the festival, 2,500 people took part in the production of snow figures, and the event itself was first reported on television and in newspapers.
Thanks to the efforts of the media, since 1960, more and more tourists and participants from all over Japan came to the Sapporo Snow Festival — the popularity of the festival increased « like a snowball.
In 1972, Sapporo became the capital of the Winter Olympic Games, and the Snow Festival, held this year under the motto «Welcome to Sapporo!», gained fame far beyond Japan.
In 1974, Japan was rocked by the «oil shock», but the Snow Festival was held as usual. Due to a lack of gasoline, trucks could not deliver enough snow to the festival site, and empty barrels were covered with snow, on the basis of which snow figures were then built. In the same year, the first international snow figure competition was held.
Nowadays, the Sapporo Snow Festival is usually held at three venues (Odori, Susukino and Tsudome parks — are the main venues for the festival, but there are also changes in the program) and lasts a week.