Cultural Events

Hong Kong Arts Festival

Since 1973, the annual Hong Kong Arts Festival has been regarded as a major international arts festival. The 1999 festival presented 37 programmes including over 100 performances and exhibitions. It was well received with some 90 000 tickets sold, averaging 91 per cent attendance. Highlights included the Kirov Opera, the Hamburg Ballet, the cross-culture performance of Lear and two chamber operas commissioned for the festival and directed by Lo King-man.

The City Festival

The City Festival is a reinvention of the Fringe Festival, and focuses on the multiplicities of a modern city. The first City Festival was launched in January by the Fringe Club, attracting over 350 000 people in a three-week programme held all over the region — featuring performances, exhibitions, heritage tours, talks, panel discussions, workshops, and an outdoor arts fair. More than 170 groups and individual artists from Hong Kong and overseas took part.

    The Fringe Club is located in a historical building in Central. It has two theatres, two art galleries, a rehearsal studio, a pottery studio and showroom, a restaurant, and some offices. Free use of these facilities is provided to artists on an open-access format throughout the year. It also engages in the production of a diverse range of arts programmes in and outside Hong Kong. The Fringe Club produced the highly successful Hong Kong Fringe Festival for 16 years.