雪まつり、会場開催断念　２年連続オンライン―札幌

　２月５日から始まる「さっぽろ雪まつり」について、札幌市などで構成する実行委員会は１９日、新型コロナウイルス感染拡大を受け、大通公園に会場を設けず、オンライン形式で開催すると発表した。オンライン開催は、史上初となった昨年に続き２回目。
　市によると、人が集まりにくい場所に高さ３メートル程度の雪像を１基作り、制作風景などをインターネットで配信する予定。（2022/01/19-11:02）

This year's Sapporo Snow Festival, set to start Feb. 5, will take place online, the annual event's organizers, including the city of Sapporo, the capital of the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido, said Wednesday.
   The decision to hold the festival in an online format for the second straight year was made in response to the recent rapid spread of the novel coronavirus.
   Instead of setting up a physical venue for the festival at Odori Park in Sapporo's Chuo Ward to showcase giant snow sculptures as in years through 2020, the organizers plan to create a snow sculpture of about 3 meters tall in a location that rarely becomes crowded and deliver on the internet a video showing how the sculpture was made, according to the Sapporo city government.
   In November last year, the organizers announced that the 2022 festival will be held at Odori Park on a reduced scale. They gave up on the plan, however, following the sharp resurgence in COVID-19 infections.