Hong Kong Arts Festival

Held annually in February and March, the Hong Kong Arts Festival is one of the most important international festivals in Asia, and has become highly regarded worldwide since it began in 1973. With an array of notable performers taking part, the 2006 Festival attracted over 103 000 people to its 108 performances, representing an average attendance rate of over 92.6 per cent per performance. The fare offered in the 2006 Festival programme included Semper Opera Dresden and Opera Nuremberg — Don Giovanni; San Francisco Symphony; Birmingham Royal Ballet — Beauty and the Beast; Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan — Cursive: A Trilogy; Rosas; National Theatre of Britain — The History Boys; U-Theatre and The Shaolin Temple Wushu Training Centre — A Touch of Zen; Salif Keita; as well as local dramas The Unexpected Man; Ending the World and Actors' Family — The Legend of the White Snake.

International Arts Carnival

The six-week International Arts Carnival is the largest annual summer arts festival presented by the LCSD. Held in July and August, it provides healthy, educational and enjoyable entertainment for the whole family. In addition to the shows, the festival offered an opportunity for schoolchildren to tour the carnival ground before the fair opened, to join a fun party, take part in workshops, exhibitions, a graphic design competition and other activities. Some 156 000 people attended 427 shows, featuring 42 local and 10 overseas artist groups during the festival which ran from July 7 to August 13.

New Vision Arts Festival

The New Vision Arts Festival continued its avant-garde programming to showcase innovative music, dance and theatre focusing on contemporary Asian arts. The festival opened with the mesmerising performance by the Shen Wei Dance Arts in Rite of Spring and Near the Terrace and wound up the show with the cross-cultural theatre production of Geisha by Ong Keng Sen. Asian premieres of the commissioned works — Eclectic Tales from Mongolia and city:zen were highly acclaimed. A total of 28 visiting and 20 local artist groups performed 84 events during the four-week festival which ran from October 20 to November 19, 2006. More than 71 000 people attended the performances.

Hong Kong International Film Festival

Presented by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society Limited, the 30th Hong Kong International Film Festival offered a wide range of programmes. The 16-day festival included outdoor film shows screened at the Inflatable Games Carnival held at Tamar Site, 30th Anniversary Programme — HBO Theatre, Chinese Renaissance, [si]@hkiff, Master of Genres: Nakagawa Nobuo, James Benning: Stilled Emotions and a retrospective on Kong Ngee Studio contributed by the Hong Kong Film Archive. Awards presented during the event included the Sony HDV Asian Digital Competition, the Humanitarian Awards for Documentaries, the FIPRESCI Prize, the SIGNIS Award and the new Fresh Wave Joint-U Short Film Competition Award. Under the classifications of Global Vision, Indie Power, Gala Presentation and Master Class, more than 250 films from over 40 countries were shown during the festival.