It was decided on December 11th, 2020 that the 72nd Tokamachi Snow Festival, originally scheduled to take place February 20-21, 2021, will be cancelled.

1. Cancellation Reasons

① With the recent surges in coronavirus infection numbers, we knew it would be for the best to cancel this largescale event.
② The festival in itself is an event involving short-distance travel between festival plazas and the snow sculptures scattered across town, making it difficult to implement anti-coronavirus measures used as a guideline across Japan.

2. Chain of Events Leading to Cancellation

① July 2nd, 2020 – 1st Executive Committee Meeting (Announcement of Festival Dates) (After this meeting, each individual group began their own planning)
② September 25th, 2020 – 1st Planning Committee Meeting (Analysis of Group Planning)
③ October 12th, 2020 – 2nd Planning Committee Meeting (Discussion of Coronavirus Spreading, etc) (The 2nd Executive Committee Meeting, originally planned for mid-October, was postponed to monitor the ongoing corona situation)
④ Mid-November, 2020 – Another wave of coronavirus; remarks solicited and assembled from each group
⑤ November 30th, 2020 – 3rd Executive Committee Meeting (Discussion of policies for the event)
⑥ December 11th, 2020 – 2nd Chairperson Main Office Committee Member Joint Session (when the cancellation was decided)

3. Other Notes

A smaller, resident-focused event to enjoy the snow may be planned in the future.