A winter festival featuring about 30 ice sculptures has been drawing many tourists to a hot spring resort in Japan's northern prefecture of Hokkaido.

The annual Ice Fall Festival got underway on Saturday in Sounkyo hot spring resort in the town of Kamikawa.

Visitors posed for photos in front of the colorfully-illuminated ice sculptures on the Ishikari River bed.

A bar and a booth serving food and drinks have been set up for the first time in three years after a hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. The bar is inside of an ice sculpture, where people can enjoy cups of hot sake or cocoa at tables made of ice.

A woman in her 20s who came from Mie Prefecture, central Japan, said she was excited by views that can't be seen in the region she is from.

A man in his 70s who came from a town in Hokkaido said numerous sharp icicles inside the sculptures were very impressive.

The festival will run through March 12.