I hear that this annual event in Odori Park was started to commemorate the 30th year of Sapporo’s becoming a sister city of Munich.
Both cities, famous for beer production, hosted the Olympic Games in the same year, 1972, winter in Sapporo and summer in Munich.
The idea of this event is to enjoy the atmosphere of the Munich Christmas Market in Sapporo with hot wines and German sausages. Night time, therefore, is the high time, I guess. It’s definitely not a time for beer, but HOT wines?
I’ve never come across hot wines before, but they are spiced and mulled and offered during the Christmas holiday season. Thank you, but I’ll pass 🙂
Here’s the official web page in English of this event with night time photos. Oh, just for your information, I do not encourage foreign tourists to plan to visit Sapporo in early December. It’s usually too early to enjoy the snow season and the roads get tricky because snowfalls often turn to ice 🙁