Sapporo Snow Festival Canceled and to be Held Online for 2021

After increasing infections of coronavirus across Japan, organizers of the Sapporo Snow Festival announced that the event next year will be canceled, for the first time since the festival first began in 1950.

One of the largest of its kind in the world, the Sapporo Snow Festival features a large number of sculptures made from ice and snow displayed at the center of Hokkaido's capital. The festival is extremely popular with both domestic and international tourists, usually featuring huge sculptures of pop culture figures and famous landmarks.

The 2021 Snow Festival was planned to be held from February 4th to 11th, however due to a recent surge of cases in COVID-19, a decision was made to cancel the usual activities. The festival has been held every year around Odori Park and Susukino in Sapporo since 1950, normally with hundreds of ice and snow sculptures.

2021 Online Snow Festival

While the event will be canceled for the most part, the organizers have announced that they will be putting various aspects of the snow festival online.

Officials added during the announcement that videos of past festivals will be uploaded and shown online on their website along with broadcasted on electronic billboards around Sapporo. Historical information about the event will also be displayed and the committee is considering making a number of educational videos about the sculpting process for the snow sculptures. It's not been confirmed yet whether new sculptures will be made next year to be shown online yet.

A number of events have resorted to moving activities online for 2020 and 2021 as the world continues to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Go To Travel Japan

The decision to cancel the event comes at the same time the Japanese government has decided to temporally suspend the 'Go To Travel' campaign from December 28th to January 11th. The New Year period in Japan often sees large numbers of domestic tourism as people travel to their hometown, which could further increase cases of COVID-19.

Visiting Sapporo

As the Go To Travel campaign will still be running during the end of January and February, when Sapporo becomes a winter wonderland, it's still the perfect chance to explore this beautiful city and the island of Hokkaido. While attending festivals and large public events might be discouraged, there's still plenty to do in Sapporo.

For some of the best things to do in Sapporo click here: Things to Do and See in Sapporo: The Capital of North Japan

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