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Sapporo Snow Festival turns to Snow Demolitian festival

The Sapporo Snow Festival is a time-honored tradition, beloved by people of all ages, tourists and locals alike. Where else can you see a giant Star Wars display carved out of snow (it was the largest snow sculpture in Snow Festival history, clocking in at 15 m high, 22 m wide, and 20 m deep), Evangelion girls chilling on a snow "beach" with Unit-01, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Sn-Ohmus, Love Live snow reliefs, Kyubeys, and, of course, Snow Miku?

Or a massive Candy Crush display with projection images?

And even sporting events, ice sculptures, sledding hills, ice rinks, architectural marvels, and seemingly everything in between. (This video and its followup have a rundown of every snow sculpture at this year's festival.)

But all good things must come to an end, which is why after the Snow Festival's week-long run, everything has to get knocked down. Hence, the Snow Demolitian Festival. If you like knocking down Jenga towers and kicking sand castles, this is for you.

Whee!

Good-bye, Sazae-san.

Once mighty buildings, reduced to a snow bank.

See you next year, Snow Miku.

Before the demolitian, a bottle of sake is passed around and poured in turn. This holy liquor, miki, is used to bless the demolitian site, not only to wish for good luck and safety for the crew, but also to make an offering to the image which is about to be destroyed. Although the statues are just snow, they bear a face, and are said to have a soul. You can see the whole process in this video from 2011, once again with Sazae-san:

Here's some more pictures from this year's demolitian:

雪まつり終わって雪像の解体…うぉ~ pic.twitter.com/FD1jiwOT7T

— maipon ♡ ☆暇人☆ (@ponponhasepon) February 12, 2015

大雪像の取り壊し作業の前、製作に関わった人たちは雪像に酒をまいたり、キャラクターの雪像に雪で目隠ししたりして、別れを告げます。 pic.twitter.com/sMSY9bowPs

— HBC北海道放送公式アカウント (@HBChokkaido) February 12, 2015

As one might expect, the spectacle tends to draw crowds.

This year, because of increased temperatures and rain, some of the snow sculptures were already crumbling and melting by the end of the festival. Workers scrambled to repair parts of the Star Wars sculpture before it created larger issues.

However, it'll probably be pretty satisfying once they set the excavators on it.

[Via RocketNews24; additoinal images from Yahoo! Japan]