Sapporo's Snow festival (Yuki Matsuri) has fabulous ice and snow sculptures, and snow slides for the children. It is a real treat. This is the 52nd year, and it spans three sites and draws two million visitors!
Except that this winter has been too warm! They had to work hard to get enough snow assembled for the exhibits, and it has been melting quickly since the opening.
During the daytime, we could see enough of the melting structures to imagine how incredible they really were (we arrived on day 2 of the 7 days festival, but the creations were completed three days ago). There are amazing ice carvings, with swans, dragons, phoenix, etc. There are large snow structures, including recreations of palaces, and fanciful structures such as Disney's Mickey Mouse skiing. There are several hundred different structures. Many of the details were melted, but very few of the sculptures had toppled over yet.
At night, the place really comes alive. The sculptures are lit up and the crowds come out. On several stages, local performers get to show off their talents. It has the feeling of a huge community event. In fact, one of the major sculptures captures that spirit: there was a contest in the grade schools to sketch a castle with a Pegasus. Many of the crayon drawings submitted by schoolchildren are displayed. It is really cool to see the winner --it is right next to the huge finished sculpture.
It is cool to see a city of 1.4 million people put on such a large event, and yet retain a community feel.
