A colorful winter wonderland in Hokkaido (Photo: 千歳・支笏湖氷濤まつり(Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival) – t-konno / CC BY-SA 3.0)
Feb 1st
Feb 24th
A colorful winter wonderland in Hokkaido (Photo: 千歳・支笏湖氷濤まつり(Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival) – t-konno / CC BY-SA 3.0)

Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival 2025

Enjoy the best of Hokkaido's magical, frozen winter landscape

When
Feb 1st - Feb 24th 2025

Each year during the winter months, Hokkaido's Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival brings a dose of colorful magic to this corner of Japan with numerous illuminated ice sculptures. The event also typically includes other fun events like ice skating, ice slides, fireworks, and food booths.

The event runs from 10 am until 8 pm daily, but the illumination starts from 4.30 pm. Admission is priced at 500 yen.

Getting there

The Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival can be accessed within around 40 minutes by taxi from Sapporo's New Chitose Airport. Bus services are also available from the airport at a cost of 1050 yen - it's definitely a more cost-effective option than the price of a taxi (around 7000 yen!) and only a slightly longer travel time at around 55 minutes. Look for the Lake Shikotsu Line bus.

More info

Find out more about Lake Shikotsu.

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Randy M 3 weeks ago
Beware: I pre-purchased tickets with KK-day and the prices were MUCH higher than listed here, both the entry ticket and the bus ticket were almost double. Shop around to see if there is a cheaper vendor.
Kim Bergström Author 3 weeks ago
Hi Randy! Just a quick follow up on this, it looks like the admission price has changed for this year -- the official site in Japanese lists the admission as 1000 yen (in past years it was 500 yen) but we have now updated this on our site accordingly.
azira zamri a month ago
since the event started on 1st feb 2025, does the lake open to public on 31st january? since i will be there on the date only
Papassorn Wankhan a month ago
If we drive form chitose airport, is parking available at the festival?
osan f a year ago
Where can I find the bus schedule for Lake Shikotsu?
Bonson Lam a year ago
This timetable might be of help to you (departing from Chitose) https://transfer.navitime.biz/chuo-bus-eng/pc/transfer/DepArrTimeList?snode=00301084&gnode=00300925&depTime=14&date=

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