"Winter is Sapporo, Summer is Daejeon" Benchmarking the Sapporo Snow Festival

Daejeon City announced that Mayor Lee Jang-woo of Daejeon and the economic delegation attended the opening ceremony of the "74th Sapporo Snow Festival" held in Sapporo, Japan, on the 4th.

The Sapporo Snow Festival is one of the world's top three festivals and is a popular winter festival not only in Japan but also among overseas tourists. It is estimated that an average of about 2.7 million visitors attend the snow festival each year.

Lee Jang-woo, Mayor of Daejeon (second from the left in the front row), attended the opening ceremony of the "Snow Festival" held in Sapporo, Japan, on the 4th as a guest. Photo by Daejeon City

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After attending the opening ceremony, Mayor Lee and the economic delegation visited the site of the snow sculpture competition held along a 1.5 km section of Odori Park in Sapporo to get a feel for the event atmosphere.

They examined the components of the Sapporo Snow Festival, such as landscape lighting applied to snow and ice sculptures, and the snow sculpture creation spaces where citizens can participate directly. The purpose of visiting the event site was to find elements to incorporate into the "Daejeon 0시 Festival" to be held this August.

Mayor Lee stated, "The Sapporo Snow Festival is said to have originated with the purpose of enjoying the cold and long winter," adding, "Just as the Sapporo Snow Festival is held with winter as its theme, the 'Daejeon 0시 Festival' held in Daejeon will become a world-class festival representing summer, attracting many people from various countries."

He continued, "During my participation in the opening ceremony of the Sapporo Snow Festival, I was able to envision the future of a regional festival growing into a world-class festival by incorporating unique and diverse programs into this year's 'Daejeon 0시 Festival.'"

Daejeong Lee, Mayor of Daejeon, is discussing with the economic delegation at the Sapporo Snow Festival site about benchmarking elements of the snow festival for the "Daejeon 0 o'clock Festival." Photo by Daejeon City

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Meanwhile, on the same day, Mayor Lee and the economic delegation visited the ongoing International Snow Sculpture Competition at the Sapporo Snow Festival and took time to encourage three sculptors from the Daejeon region participating in the competition.

These sculptors participated in the competition as representatives of Korea.

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