Sapporo Snow Festival The Snow Festival began in 1950, when six local high school students built six snow statues in Odori Park. In 1955, the Japan Self-Defense Forces from the nearby Makomanai base joined in and built the first massive snow sculptures, for which the Snow Festival has now become famous. Several snow festivals existed in Sapporo prior to the Sapporo Snow Festival, however, all of these were suspended during World War II. [5] Owing to the Energy crisis of 1974, snow statues were built using drums. This was due to the shortage of gasoline caused by the crisis and many of the trucks used to carry snow to the site were unavailable. In the same year, the International Snow Statue Competitio n started and since that year many snow statues built by teams from other countries have featured; especially from sister cities of Sapporo such as Munich. In years when the accumulated snowfall is low, the Self-Defense Force, for whom participation is considered a training exercise, brings in snow from outside Sapporo. The Makomanai base, one of three main sites from 1965, [6] hosted the largest sculptures, with an emphasis on providing play space for children. Use of the Makomanai site was suspended in 2005 and moved to the Sapporo Satoland site located in Higashi-ku from 2006. In 2009, the Satoland site was moved to the Tsudome ( つどーむ Tsudōmu ? , Sapporo Community Dome) site. The Tsudome, located close to the Sapporo Satoland, is a dome for multiple sports events. Nakajima Park was established as one of the festival sites in 1990 however, it was removed as a site in 1992. [5] The third site, known as the Susukino Ice Festival (すすきの氷の祭典 Susukino Kōri no Saiten ? ), is situated in the night-life district of Susukino and includes predominantl y ice carvings. The site was approved as one of the festival sites in 1983. [6] In every year, the Susukino Queen of Ice, a female beauty contest , is held at the site. The festival is one of Japan's largest and most distinctive winter events. [2] In 2007 (58th Festival), about two million people visited Sapporo to see the hundreds of snow statues and ice sculptures at the Odori Park and Susukino sites, in central Sapporo, and at the Satoland site. [3] The festival is thought to be an opportuni ty for promoting international relations. International Snow Sculpture