The festival is celebrating its 70th year in 2019. It began with a number of schoolchildren who responded to the end of heavy blizzards by using the snow to build a small handful of sculptures. Their handiwork drew a crowd of about 50,000 that year, and it became an informal annual event. In 1955, members of the Self Defense Force joined in, creating a series of large snow sculptures. Annual attendance grew steadily, took off after worldwide TV coverage of the 1972 Winter Olympics, and now routinely numbers about 2 million.

Among the venues are Odori Park, Tsu Dome, and the wider Susukino district. A highlight of the festival is the International Snow Sculpture Contest, featuring teams of sculptors who construct large monuments; that competition began in 1974. Also on hand are ice statues of famous figures, like Mickey Mouse and Darth Vader. One very popular subject fo sculpture in 2019 has been tennis player Naomi Osaka, who won two straight Grand Slam tournaments, the 2018 U.S. Open and the 2019 Australian Open.