Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival 2027: Weekends Now ¥3,000
The cheapest plan is a weekday visit. Of the 25 festival days, 15 are weekdays at ¥1,000 and 10 are weekends or national holidays at ¥3,000. The Chitose-Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival official site: 2027 outline lists these dates, hours and prices. Below you will find the price for each date, the bus from the airport and the February cold. The last section fits the trip around the Sapporo Snow Festival.
Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival 2027 dates and hours
The 2027 festival opens on Saturday 30 January and closes on Tuesday 23 February. It is the 49th edition of the event. The Hokkaido official tourism site: Chitose-Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival page lists it as open every day during that period, with no closing days.
Gates open at 10:00 and close at 20:00. The lights switch on at 16:30 and stay on until closing. That gives you three and a half hours of the night show on every date.
The drawing above sums up the run: 30 January to 23 February, 10:00 to 20:00, with lights from 16:30. Plan your arrival around which version you want to see. In daylight the ice glows a natural blue that the organisers call Shikotsu blue. After dark, multicoloured lights shine on the same sculptures.
Two of the festival days are national holidays. Thursday 11 February is National Foundation Day, and Tuesday 23 February is the Emperor’s Birthday. Our page on Japan’s February public holidays shows both days for 2026 and 2027. On these two dates the festival charges the weekend price.
Interest in the festival builds months ahead. Google searches for “lake shikotsu ice festival” rose from 2,900 in October 2025 to 8,100 in January 2026 and 9,900 in February 2026. February’s count was 3.4 times October’s, then searches dropped to 1,300 in March.
| Month | Searches |
|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 1900 |
| Oct 2025 | 2900 |
| Nov 2025 | 3600 |
| Dec 2025 | 4400 |
| Jan 2026 | 8100 |
| Feb 2026 | 9900 |
| Mar 2026 | 1300 |
| Apr 2026 | 720 |
| May 2026 | 720 |
| Jun 2026 | 880 |
| Jul 2026 | 1000 |
| Aug 2026 | 1600 |
The chart shows that most people start reading about the festival only weeks before it opens. If you want a lakeside room and the hotel-only night ticket described below, decide your dates now, while searches are still low.
Ticket prices: ¥1,000 weekdays, ¥3,000 weekends
For 2027, entry for junior high students and older costs ¥1,000 on weekdays. On Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays it costs ¥3,000. Children of elementary school age and younger enter free on every date.
The festival posted an entry price revision notice on its official site. It raised the weekend and holiday price from ¥1,000 to ¥3,000 and kept the weekday price at ¥1,000. So a Saturday visit now costs ¥2,000 more per adult than the same visit on a Monday.
The before-and-after drawing shows the change in one line each. Families with young children feel it less, since elementary pupils and younger still pay nothing on any day.
Use the table below to pick a date. It groups the 25 days by week, shows the adult price for each block and marks the days that overlap with the Sapporo Snow Festival.
| Dates (2027) | Days | Entry | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 30-31 | Sat-Sun | ¥3,000 | Opening weekend |
| Feb 1-5 | Mon-Fri | ¥1,000 | Sapporo Snow Festival opens Feb 4 |
| Feb 6-7 | Sat-Sun | ¥3,000 | Sapporo Snow Festival also on |
| Feb 8-10 | Mon-Wed | ¥1,000 | Sapporo Snow Festival also on |
| Feb 11 | Thu (holiday) | ¥3,000 | National Foundation Day; Snow Festival ends |
| Feb 12 | Fri | ¥1,000 | Premium time ticket nights resume |
| Feb 13-14 | Sat-Sun | ¥3,000 | |
| Feb 15-19 | Mon-Fri | ¥1,000 | Premium time ticket ends Feb 18 |
| Feb 20-21 | Sat-Sun | ¥3,000 | |
| Feb 22-23 | Mon / Tue (holiday) | ¥1,000 / ¥3,000 | Feb 23: Emperor’s Birthday, last day |
Count the blocks and you get 15 weekday dates at ¥1,000 and 10 weekend or holiday dates at ¥3,000. The longest run of ¥1,000 days is Monday 15 to Friday 19 February, after the Snow Festival ends.
The Cabinet Office national holidays of Japan page confirms the two February holidays for 2027. It lists 11 February as National Foundation Day and 23 February as the Emperor’s Birthday.
The screenshot is that Cabinet Office page, in Japanese. Its 2027 list shows 建国記念の日 (Kenkoku kinen no hi, National Foundation Day) on 2月11日 and 天皇誕生日 (Tenno tanjobi, the Emperor’s Birthday) on 2月23日. For the full year, see our public holidays in 2027 page.
You can pay entry in cash, by credit card or with PayPay, the Japanese QR code payment app.
Getting there from New Chitose Airport
The festival sits in Shikotsuko Onsen, the hot spring village at Lake Shikotsu in Chitose City. Every route starts at New Chitose Airport, Hokkaido’s main airport. You have three choices: the festival bus, a taxi or a car.
The airport in the photo has its own JR station under the domestic terminal. The international terminal is a short walk away along a connecting passage.
| Place | Chitose-Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival (Shikotsuko Onsen) |
|---|---|
| Price | Junior high and older: 1,000 yen on weekdays, 3,000 yen on weekends and holidays. Elementary and younger free |
| Hours | Daily 30 Jan to 23 Feb 2027, 10:00-20:00. Lights 16:30-20:00 |
| Access | About 40 min by taxi or car from New Chitose Airport. Hyoto Blue Liner bus via JR Chitose Station, booking required |
| Official site | Chitose-Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival official site: 2027 outline |
Hyoto Blue Liner bus
The Hyoto Blue Liner is a large tour bus that runs only during the festival. It goes from New Chitose Airport to JR Chitose Station and on to Shikotsuko Onsen. Junior high students and older pay ¥2,000, and elementary pupils pay ¥1,000.
You must book a seat in advance. Each bus has 45 seats and carries no standing passengers. The Chitose-Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival Hyoto Blue Liner bus notice lists 9 runs toward the lake and 11 runs back. The same notice links to the booking page.
The organisers started the bus because a shortage of drivers has cut public bus services and tourist traffic jams the lake road. Sapporo Kanko Bus operates it. Book early for weekend and holiday dates, because a full bus means no seat at all.
Taxi
A taxi from New Chitose Airport takes about 40 minutes and costs about ¥7,000. Groups can also hire a chartered jumbo taxi from the airport. Show the driver the name 支笏湖温泉 (Shikotsuko Onsen, Lake Shikotsu hot spring village). The festival asks drivers to enter the same name in a car navigation system.
Car
By car the drive takes about 40 minutes from the airport. The venue has a car park with 400 spaces, free during winter. Book a rental car fitted for winter driving.
The chart below compares the main costs of a day at the lake, per person. The taxi fare is for the whole car, so split it if you travel as a group.
| Item | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Entry, weekday | 1000 yen | |
| Premium time ticket | 1500 yen | Hotel guests, entry included |
| Hyoto Blue Liner bus | 2000 yen | Elementary pupils 1,000 yen |
| Entry, weekend or holiday | 3000 yen | |
| Taxi from New Chitose Airport | 7000 yen | About 40 min, per car |
If you base yourself in Sapporo, you first ride the JR Rapid Airport to New Chitose Airport. Our New Chitose Airport to Sapporo page lists that train at 33 minutes and ¥1,230. Airport buses into Sapporo Station take 63 to 74 minutes for ¥1,500.
What to see: blue ice by day, lights at night
The festival calls itself an ice museum. Staff spray water from Lake Shikotsu through sprinklers until it freezes into ice sculptures of every size. You walk through the site on foot among them.
The photo shows the daytime look. Clear lake water freezes with a blue tint, which is why the organisers name the colour after the lake. Come before 16:30 to see it in natural light.
The lake itself explains the colour. Lake Shikotsu is a caldera lake formed by volcanic activity about 32,000 years ago. It is the second deepest lake in Japan after Lake Tazawa in Akita. The Ministry of the Environment’s water quality survey has ranked it first in the country 20 times.
Mt. Tarumae, Mt. Eniwa and Mt. Fuppushi rise above the water, and Lake Okotanpe sits nearby.
From 16:30 the site changes. Coloured lights shine through the ice until the gates close at 20:00. The light show runs every evening of the festival, so a weekday visit gets the same night view as a weekend one.
Premium time ticket for hotel guests
If you stay overnight at a Shikotsuko Onsen hotel, you can buy a premium time ticket for ¥1,500 per person, entry included. It lets you back into the site after the public closing time, from 20:15 to 21:15. The same ticket gets you in again the next morning from 10:00 to 12:00, after you check out.
The Chitose-Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival premium time ticket page lists the dates as weekdays from Monday 1 February to Thursday 18 February 2027. Thursday 11 February is excluded. You apply at your hotel, not at the gate.
Hotels taking applications include Marukoma Onsen Ryokan, Shikotsuko Tsuruga Resort Spa Mizu no Uta, Kyukamura Shikotsuko and Lakeside Villa Suimeikaku. Some hotels sell the ticket only as part of a room package, and some offer no package.
Food, snow play and hot springs
The lake’s best-known food is himemasu, a kokanee salmon locals call Shikotsuko chip. Lakeside restaurants, hotels and inns serve it as sushi or grilled whole.
North Snow Land in Chitose runs as a partner venue during the festival. It has tube slides, four-wheel buggies, snow rafting and mini snowmobiles, and some rides cost extra.
Several inns around the venue offer day-trip bathing. Marukoma Onsen, on the far shore, has an open-air bath that looks straight out over the lake.
Lake Shikotsu weather in February and what to wear
February at Lake Shikotsu stays below freezing all day on average. The Japan Meteorological Agency climate normals for Shikotsu-kohan give a February average of -4.5°C, a daily high of -1.2°C and a daily low of -7.9°C. These are averages for 1991 to 2020.
January is a little colder. The same table gives an average of -4.8°C, a high of -1.9°C and a low of -7.9°C. The festival opens on 30 January, so early visitors get the coldest nights.
The screenshot is the JMA page for the Shikotsu-kohan weather station, in Japanese. It lists monthly normals for rain, temperature, wind and sunshine. The rows marked 1月 and 2月 are January and February.
The lake is colder than the city. Our Hokkaido in February page gives Sapporo an average of 0.4°C by day and -6.2°C at night. February at the lake also brings about 72.2 mm of precipitation and 116.6 hours of sunshine over the month.
The night show is the cold part of the day. Temperatures fall toward the -7.9°C low after dark, and you stand still to take photos. Wear a thermal base layer, a warm mid layer and a windproof outer coat. Add a hat, gloves you can use a phone with, and boots with a grip sole for packed snow.
Disposable hand warmers help a lot. Our page on disposable hand warmers explains that you can bring them into Japan. For the full list, see our Japan packing list for winter.
The checklist above covers four things to sort out before you leave. They are the bus booking, how you will pay, clothes for -7.9°C nights and the 20:00 end of the lights. After the ice, warm up in one of the day-trip hot spring baths in the village before the ride back.
Pairing it with the Sapporo Snow Festival
The two festivals overlap completely. The Sapporo Snow Festival 2027 outline announcement sets the 77th edition for Thursday 4 to Thursday 11 February 2027, a run of 8 days. Every one of those days falls inside the Lake Shikotsu run.
The Snow Festival uses three sites. The Odori site runs from West 1-chome to West 11-chome, with five large snow sculptures at its centre. The Tsudome and Susukino sites complete the set. Our Sapporo Snow Festival 2027 guide covers the sites and hours.
The photo shows the snow sculptures on Odori. Plan the Snow Festival for the evening in the city and Lake Shikotsu for a weekday, and you see both for the lowest price.
During the overlap, Lake Shikotsu charges ¥1,000 on Thursday 4, Friday 5, Monday 8, Tuesday 9 and Wednesday 10 February. It charges ¥3,000 on Saturday 6, Sunday 7 and Thursday 11 February. The 11th is National Foundation Day and the Snow Festival’s last day, so expect holiday crowds at both events.
A simple plan works like this. Land at New Chitose Airport and take the Blue Liner to the lake on a weekday. Stay one night at Shikotsuko Onsen with the premium time ticket. The next morning, return to the airport and ride the JR Rapid Airport into Sapporo in 33 minutes for ¥1,230.
In Sapporo, on weekends and holidays the Sapporo one-day subway ticket called the Donichika Ticket costs ¥520 for adults and ¥260 for children. Our Sapporo in February page lists the city’s other events, including Sapporo White Illumination.
Many visitors search for one “Hokkaido snow festival”, but the region holds several winter events in February. Besides Sapporo and Lake Shikotsu, Jozankei Onsen Yukitouro lights up a hot spring town near Sapporo. If you fly in from Tokyo, our Tokyo to Sapporo page lists flights from Haneda at 1 h 30 min, with 56 a day.
FAQ
How much is the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival in 2027?
Junior high students and older pay ¥1,000 on weekdays and ¥3,000 on Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays. Children of elementary school age and younger enter free. The festival accepts cash, credit cards and PayPay.
Do I need to book the Hyoto Blue Liner bus in advance?
Yes. The Blue Liner takes advance bookings only, and each bus has 45 seats with no standing. It costs ¥2,000 for junior high students and older and ¥1,000 for elementary pupils. If you miss a seat, a taxi from New Chitose Airport takes about 40 minutes and costs about ¥7,000.
Is the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival open at night?
Yes. The site stays open until 20:00, and the lights run from 16:30 to 20:00 every day of the festival. Guests at Shikotsuko Onsen hotels can buy a ¥1,500 premium time ticket for 20:15 to 21:15 on most weekdays from 1 to 18 February.
Can I visit the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival and the Sapporo Snow Festival on the same trip?
Yes. The Sapporo Snow Festival runs from 4 to 11 February 2027, inside the Lake Shikotsu run of 30 January to 23 February. Both trips start from New Chitose Airport. Visit the lake on a weekday such as 8, 9 or 10 February to pay ¥1,000 instead of ¥3,000.
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