YRS at Snow Festival 2025
Album

We were very happy to have the chance to present Yukikaki Research Station (YRS) at the SIAF Pre-Events at the famous Sapporo Snow Festival in February 2025. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

The YRS had been disassembled and stored since 2020, so it was time to figure out how to assemble the puzzle again. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Thankfully we had made in 2020 a system with numbered parts and a technical rider with assembly instructions. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

We were also very grateful for all the help from the SIAF colleagues. Especially Kazuya Sano helped a lot by checking the parts and testing the electronics beforehand. Asami Hosokawa and Chika Matsumoto also made sure that we had everything that we needed. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

It was snowing when we were assembling the installaion in the Snow Festival area, but the pieces were put together quite fast. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

The electronics were also connected to an outlet. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Once finished, the installation looked great surrounded by snow and amazing snow sculptures. We also got a cool pink sign. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

At night the installation lights were more visible and lots of curious visitors walked by, as the Snow Festival is very popular internationally. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

We got the electronics running and were excited to get some real wind turbine data, although it was not very windy. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Here is some sample data (rounds per minute) that the YRS turbines produced. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

We also needed to do some snow maintenance, but for that there is plenty of good equipment in Sapporo, as we knew from our residency. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

SIAF Pre-Events poster with happy artists. There was also a demolition party at the end where YRS was taken a part and the parts were given away to locals. We hope that the turbines have brought joy to their new owners. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä