Sapporo Snow Festival 2027 by Car: Dates (4–11 Feb), Where You Can Actually Park, and How to Combine It with Asahikawa, Otaru and Lake Shikotsu

The 77th Sapporo Snow Festival runs from Thursday 4 February to Thursday 11 February 2027. The organising committee confirmed the dates on 13 July 2026, so you can book now. This guide is not about the sculptures. It is about the part most guides skip: what happens when you arrive in Sapporo with a car, where you can and cannot park, what February driving actually feels like here, and how to use the car for the three other winter festivals that land in the same week.

The three sites, and the short version on parking

Odori Site — Odori Park, blocks 1 to 11 in the city centre. The large snow sculptures go up on blocks 4, 5, 7, 8 and 10. No festival parking. You use the paid car parks around the park and walk.
Tsudome Site — the Tsudome sports dome in Higashi-ku, the family site with snow slides and rafts. No public parking at all, and no drop-off point, in the organisers' own words. You take the Toho subway line to Sakaemachi Station and then a shuttle bus or a 15-minute walk.
Susukino Site — the ice sculptures, on the main avenue (Ekimae-dori) between Minami 4-jo and Minami 6-jo. The street is the venue. Nowhere to drive into.

The realistic plan for anyone with a car is simple: leave the car at your hotel or a city car park and ride the subway between the three sites. Odori and Susukino are one stop apart; Odori to Sakaemachi is a direct ride on the Toho line.

If you must drive to Odori: the underground car park

The closest large car park is the Sapporo Odori Underground Car Park, directly under the park. From the operator's official page:

Hours: 8:00–22:00. No overnight parking and no entry or exit outside those hours.
Rates: ¥460 for the first hour, then ¥230 per 30 minutes. Enter after 16:00 and it is ¥230 for the first 30 minutes with a night cap of ¥1,000 until 22:00.
Vehicle limits: height 2.1 m, width 2.1 m, length 5.0 m (some bays are tighter). Tall minivans and cars with roof boxes will not fit.
No motorcycles. Cash, credit cards, IC money and QR payments accepted.

The sculptures are at their best after dark, when they are lit. Entering after 16:00 keeps the bill at ¥1,000, but remember the 22:00 closing time if you plan to walk down to the Susukino ice sculptures and back. Nearby car parks fill up during the festival. Putting the car at the hotel in daylight and coming back out by subway is the safer version of the evening.

Tsudome: the shuttle bus from Sakaemachi (2026 operation)

Tsudome is the site families most want to drive to, and the one where driving is least possible. The 2026 arrangements were as follows; the organisers say the 2027 details will be posted around mid-December 2026.

Open 10:00–16:00. Entry to the site is free; individual attractions are charged (the snow raft was ¥1,200 for adults and ¥600 for children in 2026).
Getting there: Sakaemachi Station on the Toho line, then a shuttle bus or about 15 minutes on foot.
Shuttle: from Sakaemachi 9:40–14:30, from Tsudome 12:00–16:20, every 5–10 minutes. ¥200 one way for adults, cash only; free for children of elementary-school age and under, for people aged 65 and over, and for visitors with disabilities. The stop alternates between exits 1 and 2 of the station depending on the day.
Parking: none for the public, no drop-off, and the organisers ask you not to use the car parks of nearby shops.

If you have a car, the workable version is a coin car park near Sakaemachi Station and the shuttle from there, arriving before the 10:00 opening because those car parks fill too. The last shuttle back leaves at 16:20; stay until closing and you walk.

What February driving in Sapporo is really like

The festival sits in the deepest part of Sapporo's winter. The Japan Meteorological Agency's 1991–2020 normals for February: average temperature −2.7 °C, average high 0.4 °C, average low −6.2 °C, and 116 cm of snowfall over the month. Practically:

Winter tyres are not optional. Rental cars come on studless tyres in February. If you are driving your own car up from Honshu, summer tyres will not get you through the city.
City streets are packed snow and ice, worst just before intersections. Double your following distance and brake early.
Car park entrances grow snowbanks. Coin car parks cannot clear fast enough, and bays that show as empty can be unusable.
It is dark before 17:00. If you watch the lights and then drive out of town, you are driving on snow at night.
Road salt coats the car within a few days. Wash the underside before you hand it back or drive home.

Our first-timer's guide to winter driving in Hokkaido and the rental-car winter tyre guide cover the details. For packing, see what to wear in Hokkaido in winter: standing still in a park after dark is colder than any temperature figure suggests.

Where the car earns its keep: three more festivals in the same week

The first two weeks of February 2027 stack Hokkaido's winter festivals on top of each other. This is the reason to have a car in Sapporo that week.

Asahikawa Winter Festival — 6 to 11 February

The 68th Asahikawa Winter Festival runs Saturday 6 to Thursday 11 February 2027, overlapping the Sapporo dates. The venues are normally the Asahibashi riverside and the Kaimono Koen pedestrian street; the 2026 main sculpture was 140 m wide and 20 m tall. Venue, hours and parking for 2027 are still to be announced on the official site. Sapporo to Asahikawa is about 140 km on the Dōō Expressway; allow two to two and a half hours on winter roads, and leave Asahikawa by mid-afternoon so you are on the expressway before dark.

Otaru Snow Light Path — 6 to 13 February

The Otaru Snow Light Path is set for 6 to 13 February 2027, confirmed by the Otaru Tourism Association in June 2026, with lighting hours and venue details still to come. It is an evening event of candles along the canal and the old rail line, so the classic move is to drive over from Sapporo late in the afternoon. The Sasson Expressway makes it about 40 minutes, but parking near the canal is scarce and the streets around it are steep and icy. Read our Sapporo to Otaru by car guide first. Source: Otaru Tourism Association.

Chitose–Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival — 30 January to 23 February

The Lake Shikotsu ice festival (Hyōtō Matsuri) runs 30 January to 23 February 2027 at Shikotsuko Onsen, open 10:00–20:00 with lighting from 16:30. Admission for visitors of junior-high age and up is ¥1,000 on weekdays and ¥3,000 on weekends and holidays. This is the car-friendly one: 400 parking spaces, free in winter. From Sapporo it is roughly an hour to an hour and a half via Route 453 or the Chitose interchange, and the lake is close to New Chitose Airport, which makes it a natural last stop before a flight. Source: Chitose tourism office.

And the illuminations are still on

Sapporo White Illumination keeps the Ekimae-dori display lit until 11 February 2027 and the Minami 1-jo and station-front displays until 14 March, so the snow sculptures and the lights can be walked in the same evening. Dates and hours are in our White Illumination guide.

A three-day plan with a car, based in Sapporo

Day 1: arrive in Sapporo around midday, park at the hotel, subway to Odori in the late afternoon for the lit sculptures, then walk down Ekimae-dori to the Susukino ice.
Day 2: leave by 8:00 for Asahikawa on the expressway, see the big sculpture at midday, leave by 15:00 to be back on the highway before sunset. Dinner in Sapporo.
Day 3: drive to Lake Shikotsu in the morning for the ice in daylight, then on to New Chitose if you are flying out.

Swap Asahikawa for Otaru on day 2 if you would rather see candles than sculptures, aiming to arrive as the lights go on. With children, make day 3 morning the Tsudome site instead and save Shikotsu for another trip.

Book the room and the car now

Festival week is the hardest of the year to find a Sapporo hotel room, and rental cars go the same way. If you need a hotel with parking, the list is shorter still. The dates are confirmed, so there is no reason to wait.

Frequently asked questions

Q. When is the Sapporo Snow Festival 2027?

4–11 February 2027, at the Odori, Tsudome and Susukino sites. The dates were announced by the organising committee on 13 July 2026.

Q. Is there parking at the festival?

No dedicated public parking at any of the three sites. For Odori, use the paid car parks around the park (the underground car park is open 8:00–22:00 with a 2.1 m height limit). For Tsudome, take the subway to Sakaemachi and the shuttle or walk.

Q. How much is the Tsudome shuttle?

In 2026 it was ¥200 one way for adults, cash only, free for young children and people 65 and over, running from Sakaemachi Station 9:40–14:30 and back from the site 12:00–16:20. The 2027 arrangements will be posted on the official site around mid-December.

Q. Can I see Sapporo and Asahikawa on the same day?

The dates overlap (Asahikawa is 6–11 February), but it is more than two hours each way on winter roads. Do Asahikawa as a daytime day trip and see the Sapporo sculptures at night on a different day.

Q. Can I drive up on summer tyres?

No. February streets in Sapporo are packed snow and ice. Bring the car on winter tyres or rent one, which will already be on studless tyres.

The 2027 traffic restrictions and the Tsudome shuttle details are due from the organisers in mid-December 2026; this page will be updated then. Before you go, check the official Sapporo Snow Festival site and the official pages of the other festivals for the latest information. Details of hours, parking and shuttle services above are from the 2026 festival and may change.