Hakuba Valley, which hosted alpine and ski jumping events at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, stages an annual snow festival each February featuring large-scale snow and ice sculptures carved by teams from across Japan. The festival's evening highlight is a torchlit descent by ski instructors and ski patrol members down the main slopes, followed by a fireworks display launched against the mountain backdrop. Snowshoe night tours, igloo-building workshops, and local sake and mountain cuisine stalls complete the programme. The village's world-class ski terrain remains fully open throughout the festival period.
- Type
- Festival
- Category
- Snow/Winter
- Season
- Winter
- Month
- February
- Region
- Chubu
- Prefecture
- Nagano
- City
- Hakuba
Highlights
- ◆Large snow and ice sculptures on the village plaza
- ◆Torchlit ski descent by instructors down Olympic-pedigree slopes
- ◆Fireworks display against the Northern Alps
- ◆Igloo-building and snowshoe night-walk workshops
- ◆World-class skiing and snowboarding at 10 linked resorts