When the light returns and the cold is biting at your skin, the people of Kiruna celebrate the snow and the winter with the Kiruna Snow Festival. This winter festival has been held during the last weekend of January since 1986 in the middle of the Kiruna city center. And as always the festival is full of activities for all ages!

Kiruna Snow Festival might possibly be Europe’s most cozy snow festival. Held beneath the glittering northern lights, 140 kilometers above the Arctic Circle. During the festival you will be able to take part in the rich culture Kiruna has to offer. With everything from the snow blower world championships, painting exhibitions, dog sledding, figure skating, live music performances and a kid’s playground made of snow and ice.

But the main event of the festival is undoubtedly the Kiruna International Snow Sculpture Competition. A world class competition which attracts the best snow sculpture artist from all over the world.

Please follow Kiruna Snow Festival on social media for daily updates about the event.

The Kiruna International Snow Sculpting Competition is the main event during the festival. Every year snow sculpture artists from all over the world travel to Kiruna to compete in this very prestigious and old competition.

You can watch the artists at work sculpting the most fantastic pices of artwork during the whole festival. From Wednesday (24/1-2024) until Saturday (27/1-2024) the artist will make their sculptures. All the sculptures will be build in the Snow Festival Park ADRESS: (Stadshustorget 1, 981 85 Kiruna, SWEDEN. 67°51’09.4″N 20°13’22.5″E, Right across the street of Kiruna Buss Station). And the winners will be chosen by our official jury on saturday afternoon.

The sculptures will be available for public display (free of charge) in the Snow Festival Park until they melt away during the spring.

We invite you to join us in beautiful Kiruna in Swedish Lapland for the 2025 edition of Kiruna International Snow Sculpture Competition! BE SURE TO READ THE EVENT OVERVIEW BELOW BEFORE APPLYING. Teams will be notified in December. If you are an artist and interested in participating in the snow sculpting contest, please fill out the application form for Kiruna International Snow Sculpting Competition 2025 here.

Please send us your application before November 30 2024.

Questions? E-mail Robert Gustafsson,  robert@kirunalapland.se

Join us at Kiruna Snow Festival and awaken from your winter slump!
Shake off the winter chill and unleash your creativity with fun games, take goofy photos with the family, play in our winter playground, and lose yourself in all the winter joy that Kiruna Snow Festival has to offer!

During the Snow Festival, you as a visitor can participate in a broad program of activities with a strong focus on family entertainment. During the snow festival, the smallest visitors get the chance to take part in dog sledding, watch children’s theater, enjoy musical performances, dancing, games and of course our incredibly fun snow playground!

A serious winter sport or just a kind of small-town competition? Either way, it is a delightful pastime for both the competitors and the spectators!

The Kiruna Snow Festival is proud to host the annual Snow Blower World Championships. Since 2013, the race has been one of the highlights of the festival and always draws a large crowd of spectators.

Though the championship is mainly held for the sake of common fun, some contestants take it very seriously and do their absolute best to win. The idea of the sport is for the competitors to get through a 20-meter long snow heap that is roughly 40 centimeters high. The racer that first gets through the snow wins the race and is declared the world champion.

Make sure not to miss this, truly unique and fun, Kiruna experience!

The championship always takes place during the Saturday.