The shining star of the city's cultural calendar is the month-long Arts Festival, featuring more than 80 performances from around the world.

In the next five weeks, Hong Kong Arts Festival 2008 is one more reason why you should revisit "Asia's World City" in this Year of the Rat.

With the schedule spanning 33 days starting on Valentine's Day, featuring 82 paid performances from the classical to the post-modern in 13 different venues across the city by 31 groups from around the world, including six Asian premieres, the total number of artists exceeding 1,300, and more than 83,000 seats available for performing arts lovers (most of those already sold), the Hong Kong Arts Festival 2008 is inarguably one of Asia's most prominent festivals.

Perhaps, considering that the organiser - a non-profit, non-government organisation called the Hong Kong Arts Festival Society, which works all year round to produce the festival in February and March - has been curating the city's largest annual showcase of international dance, theatre, and music for 36 years now, you may not be that surprised, but thrilled and excited.

"The Hong Kong Arts Festival is quite special because it was started by a group of community leaders who loved Hong Kong and thought that they could do something to improve the quality of life, particularly in regards to the cultural quality. Thirty six years ago, there wasn't a lot. What we have now in terms of dance, music, and theatre wasn't there," says Tisa Ho, the festival's executive director.

Today, Hong Kong's cultural calendar is filled up year round with international and local arts activities. So, how does the Hong Kong Arts Festival retain its prominence?

The answer is that festival organisers look at what's going on during the year, and try to offer something more. "We want to present the best we can find from around the world for the audience's enjoyment. In the festival, there is an integrated sense. When we do our programming, we bear in mind what else is happening - we have consultation with our counterparts and work with many major companies in Hong Kong. It's a bigger and more complicated puzzle, but I'd like to think that the festival is still an important part of that puzzle," Ho says.

Apart from being a major showcase of world-renowned companies, the festival has always been an important platform for local companies. "Being a catalyst for the development of arts in Hong Kong is also part of our agenda," Ho says. The Hong Kong Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Hong Kong Repertory Theatre and the Hong Kong Ballet all play an important role in the festival.

                  Gabriel Lee Chung-chuen stages Neil Labute's THE SHAPE OF THINGS-Photo by Kary Kwok

"We commission new works by local artists, featuring them in different ways. On a few occasions, we presented Hong Kong artists who went on to become major stars in their areas - cellist Trey Lee and Colleen Lee, for example. This year, we're proud to present Marimba artist Pius Cheung who just won a major award. I'm looking forward to an important career ahead for this young man," Ho says.

Festival-goers can always expect a wide range of programmes. "Every festival is brand new. Each year, there will be some new and exciting performances to be introduced to Hong Kong and the region," Ho says. "We're picking up on major trends and traditions that haven't been here before. This year, we have iconic works by Stuttgart Ballet, Peter Brook, and Pina Bausch, as well as the artists who are pushing at the edges whose works are very today, like Marie Chouinard."

SWAN LAKE photo by Stuttgart Ballet

Despite the diversity, there are links between various artists. "Let's look at the character of a clown. In Peter Brook's 'Fragments', the clown is very important. Then, we have Teatro Regio di Parma's 'Rigoletto', a very traditional work in which the clown, again, is centre-staged. On top of that, we also have a tribute to a great Peking Opera performer Xiao Changhua, who specialised in the role of clown. That's one of the things our festival can do - to look at different dimensions of a single subject, cross-time, cross-culture, and cross-genre."

                          FRAGMENTS photo by Pascal Victor   

                                       RIGOLETTO photo by Roberto Ricci

During the festival, there's fun to be had beyond the time between shows. "In our 'Plus' events, we want to enhance the relationship between the artists and the audience through workshops, masterclasses, and meet-the-artists sessions so that there are more dialogues and interactions," Ho says.

Another initiative is called "Young Friends". "We identify youth audiences as an important part of what we do. Young Friends is quite a big investment. Young Friends get to come to two festival events - they either see a performance, attend a rehearsal, or join a backstage tour." Outside of the festival, the Young Friends are kept informed on a year-round basis, and take part in summer workshops and performances.

In the early years of the festival, there was no support from the government for this private citizens' initiative, except that the Tourism Board helped to do some promotion and marketing overseas, Ho says. Today, the government, through its Leisure and Cultural Services Department, offers some support. "But in fact, our revenue mainly comes from sponsorship and ticket income," Ho adds.

This year, the festival's ticketing is improved with the addition of online, real-time booking. "In the past, you had to get a friend to book tickets for you; now you can book from anywhere," Ho says.

Tickets have sold out quite early, so Ho offers two pieces of advice: "One is to watch out for it and book early. Second is that there are some tickets left, so get on the Internet and try."

The Hong Kong Arts Festival 2008 runs from Thursday until March 16. For reservations, see www.urbtix.hk. For the complete schedule and more information, see www.hk.artsfestival.org.

Our Picks

If your Hong Kong trip coincides with one or more of these, you should get your tickets now. Of course, if they haven’t already sold out. Chances are you may not get to watch them in Bangkok soon. In chronological order of performance dates, here we go:

- Stuttgart Ballet’s “Swan Lake” and “Onegin”                                                     February 14 to 16, and 19 to 21

 SWAN LAKE photo by Stuttgart Ballet

                         ONEGIN photo by Stuttgart Ballet  

In the festival’s opening acts, the world-renowned company pays tribute to choreographic genius John Cranko, a former artistic director of the company known for his extraordinary narrative vision and grand-scale choreography. Dance International noted, "John Cranko's ‘Swan Lake’ is one of the company's most favorite classics." For “Onegin”, Boston Globe praised, "[Cranko] tells the story so fluently that the individual steps don't seem to exist: They dissolve in feeling."

- Peter Brook’s “Fragments”

February 15 to 18

    photo by Pascal Victor        

When one of the world’s most heralded theatre directors offer his refreshing interpretation of five short plays by master of absurdist drama Samuel Beckett, the result is an absolute must-see for any theatre aficionados. HKAF is the only Asian stop in the production’s world tour.

- American Repertory Theatre’s “Orpheus X”                                                     February 21 to 24 

Tony Award winning company from Cambridge, Massachusetts makes their Hong Kong debut with a new rock music theatre, whose script was a finalist in last year’s Pulitzer Prize Award. Visionary director Robert Woodruff puts together a post-modern production featuring evocative video projections of the lost Eurydice, by video artist Denise Marik, and a four-piece band that strums jumpy rock songs, thundering instrumentals and melodious ballads.

- Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal’s “Vollmond”

February 29 to March 3

                                                                                photo by Jochen Viehoff   

One of the greatest icons of contemporary dance who needs no further elaboration here, Bausch presents her world-famous choreographic trademarks here—superb dance, theatrical play and moments of absolute artistry—in addition to visionary set design and eclectic music, ranging from Cat Power to Alexander Balanscu quartet. This three-hour two-part program promises to be wet and wild as well as bold and breathtaking.

- Danny Yung Experimental Theatre’s “Tears of Barren Hill”

February 29 to March 1

                  photo by Cheng Yanqui

Yung is one of Asia’s most critically acclaimed theatre directors. This world premiere cross-cultural multi-media production aims to prove that Chinese traditional art is—opposite to our common belief—experimental by re-examining the life of legendary Chinese opera performer Cheng Yanqiu. 

- The Peking Opera House of Beijing’s “The Master of Chou: Xiao Changhua”

February 29 and March 1

                    photo by Cheng Yan

Chou is the comic character in traditional Chinese opera—we may recognize the white patch of paint on his upper face—and one of the greatest was Master Xiao Changhua. Marking the 130th anniversary of his birth, four works closely associated with his name are presented in two different programs from one day to another.

- Eddie Palmieri: Afro-Caribbean Jazz Sextet

March 13 to 14

A winner of nine Grammy Awards, this Puerto Rico-born “Sun of Latin Music” will get the audience on their feet and into carnival fever with his infectious energy and radiating rhythms.

- Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra

March 15 and 16

“Watching him conduct, you sense a magnetic intensity and commitment, and the LPO play better for him than they do for nearly anybody else” says The Guardian of this newly appointed principal conductor of LPO. Plus, they will be joined by violinist Nikolaj Znaider and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in this festival’s closing act.                              

 written by Pawit Mahasarinand

published in The Nation (Weekend magazine) on Friday, February 8, 2008

all photos courtesy of Hong Kong Arts Festival Society

special thanks to Dennis Wu who helped make this interview possible