JAPAN TODAY
 
The 66th Sapporo Snow Festival begins on Thursday. The annual festival, which will feature around 200 ice and snow sculptures in Odori Park, the grounds of Community Dome Tsudome and the main street in Susukino, will run until Feb 11.
 
Festival organizers said they expect 2 million people to visit the festival. Last year, 2.4 million visitors attended the festival.
 
The festival had humble beginnings in 1950 when local middle school and high school students created six snow sculptures at Odori Park. The very first event drew more than 50,000 people, and ever since, the Sapporo Snow Festival has become a winter tradition for the city.
The festival started to gain worldwide acclaim after the 1972 Winter Olympics were held in Sapporo.
 
One of the biggest additions was the International Snow Sculpture Contest, where international teams compete in a snow statue-building contest that lasts three days. Last year, the winner of the contest was Team Korea, with Team China as the runner-up.
This year, tourists can look forwarding to seeing ice and snow sculptures that include international historical sites such as the Manila Cathedral and the Hsing Tian Kong Temple of Taiwan, popular TV-show characters such as Sazae-san, and a larger-than-life creation of George Lucas’ “Star Wars.”
 
The festival will also include the 42nd International Snow Sculpture Contest, with 12 international teams representing Australia, Daejeon Metropolitan City (Korea), Finland, Hawaii, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Republic of Poland, Portland (USA), Singapore and Thailand. The contest will take place from Feb 4th to Feb 7, with the judging and award ceremony on Feb 8.