The Iiyama Snow Festival has been running for four decades now, and was originally born from the idea of trying to revitalize this quite rural area of Nagano. Instead of seeing the area's immense snowfall as a burden, the goal was to treat it as a resource by turning it into incredible snow sculptures for visitors to enjoy.
Impressively large snow sculptures fill the main event venue (the Municipal Johoku field), with other smaller creations filling the streets of the city center. The hope behind the festival is that it will serve as a starting point for excursions around the city, so be sure to spend some time exploring other attractions while you're in the area.
Getting there
The main venue (Municipal Johoku field) is located around 5 minutes by taxi from Iiyama Station.
For those driving to the area, the main venue is around 15 min from the Toyota-Iiyama IC on the Joshinetsu Expressway.
