The Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF), launched in 1973, is an international arts festival held in Hong Kong. It covers all genres of the performing arts as well as a diverse range of educational events in February and March each year.
History The inaugural Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF) took place in 1973.
Description Genres seen and heard at the Hong Kong Arts Festival include classical music , Western opera, Chinese opera, world music, jazz, drama, dance, musicals. Large-scale special events and outdoor events. HKAF presented top international artists and ensembles, such as Cecilia Bartoli, José Carreras, Yo-Yo Ma, Philip Glass, Kurt Masur, Riccardo Chailly, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Sylvie Guillem, Kevin Spacey, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre, Bavarian State Opera, New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Cloud Gate Dance Theater, Zingaro, Royal Shakespeare Company, Moscow Art Theatre, and Beijing People's Art Theatre.
HKAF actively collaborates with Hong Kong’s own creative talent and showcases emerging local artists. Over the years, HKAF has commissioned and produced over 250 local productions across genres including Cantonese opera, theatre, chamber opera, music and contemporary dance, many with successful subsequent runs in Hong Kong and overseas.
HKAF frequently partners with renowned international artists and institutions to produce exceptional works, such as Der Fensterputzer (The Window Washer) co-produced with Goethe-Institut Hong Kong and Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch; Richard III and The Tempest produced by The Old Vic, BAM and Neal Street under “The Bridge Project” with HKAF as a co-commissioning institution; Green Snake co-commissioned with Shanghai International Arts Festival; Dream of the Red Chamber co-produced with San Francisco Opera; Laila, a co-produced with Finnish National Opera and Ballet, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea , co-produced with The Central Academy of Drama, China and Compagnie Point Fixe.
HKAF invests heavily in arts education for young people. Over the past 33 years, our “Young Friends” scheme has reached around 849,000 local secondary and tertiary school students. A variety of arts education projects serving primary, secondary, and tertiary school students have been launched in recent years, featuring activities such as student showcases, pre-performance talks, open rehearsals, opportunities to attend Festival performances, as well as in-school workshops and lecture demonstrations led by international and local artists. Donations to the “Student Ticket Scheme” also make available approximately 10,000 half-price student tickets each year.
HKAF organises a diverse range of “Festival PLUS” activities in community locations each year to enhance engagement between artists and audiences. These include films, lecture demonstrations, masterclasses, workshops, symposia, backstage visits, exhibitions, meet-the-artist sessions, and guided cultural tours.
HKAF actively promotes inclusion via the arts to every corner of the community. The “No Limits” project, co-presented with The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, was launched in 2019. Through a series of performances and diverse arts experiences for students and the community, “No Limits” strives to create an inclusive space for people with different abilities to share the joy of the arts together.
To provide greater financial security and long-term sustainability for the Festival, the Hong Kong Arts Festival Foundation was officially launched in 2022. Donations to the Foundation will be used towards enabling the Festival to present in the future large-scale or special projects which its annual budget cannot cater for.
Hong Kong Arts Festival Commissions and New Works Every year the Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF) commissions and produces a series of original works that range from chamber opera, contemporary dance, theatre, innovative Beijing opera to contemporary music. These works bring together individual artists and collaborators as well as organisations from different artistic fields, whose talent shines on stage and backstage. Initiated in Hong Kong, these productions are not bound by a geographical “localness”, but transcend the local identity to echo the sensibilities of Mainland China, Taiwan Asia or even the world. This is part of HKAF’s vision as an international arts festival, and the direction it has taken in making arts as a major arts organisation in Hong Kong.
The Festival explores different modes of commissioning and production for each new work. Most of these productions are directly commissioned and produced by the Festival, which supports the creation of these works in every way from the conception of production, script development to selection of performers, creative and production teams, and oversees production arrangements, marketing and publicity, sales, and even the publication of new plays. As an independent producer working within the limits of this often hectic environment for artistic creation and production in Hong Kong, we hope to build a stronger framework with arts practitioners for the creation of new works. Apart from original local productions, we established cross-border collaboration with artists from Mainland China, Taiwan, Germany, France, England, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and the US. In exploring new thematic possibilities and creative concepts, we also set out to expand the international reach of the Festival through these co-commissions.
Chairs and directors Year Festival Chairman Executive Director19731st HKAFSir Run Run Shaw CBE
邵逸夫爵士19742nd HKAF19753rd HKAF19764th HKAF19775th HKAF19786th HKAF19797th HKAF19808th HKAFKeith Statham
史迪敦先生19819th HKAF198210th HKAF198311th HKAF198412th HKAF198513th HKAF198614th HKAF198715th HKAF198816th HKAFTseng Sun Man
鄭新文先生198917th HKAF199018th HKAFThe Hon Martin Barrow OBE JP
鮑磊先生199119th HKAF199220th HKAF199321st HKAF199422nd HKAF199523rd HKAFKau Ng
吳球先生1996 24th HKAF199725th HKAF199826th HKAF199927th HKAF200028th HKAF200129th HKAF2002 30th HKAFMona Leung
梁紹榮夫人200331st HKAFDouglas Gautier
高德禮先生200432nd HKAFCharles Y K Lee
李業廣先生2005 33rd HKAF2006 34th HKAF2007 35th HKAFMs. Tisa Ho
何嘉坤女士2008 36th HKAF2009 37th HKAF2010 38th HKAF2011 39th HKAF2012 40th HKAF2013 41st HKAF2014 42nd HKAFRonald Arculli
夏佳理先生2015 43rd HKAF201644th HKAFVictor Cha 查懋成先生201745th HKAF201846th HKAF201947th HKAF202048th HKAF202149th HKAF202250th HKAFFlora Yu 余潔儀女士202351st HKAF202452nd HKAFLo King-man 盧景文先生202553rd HKAF202654th HKAF
Selected past events Year Programme Highlights
Festival OpeningProgramme Highlights
Festival Finale1996Julio Bocca & Ballet Argentino1997Tan Dun Marco PoloMontreal Symphony Orchestra1998Richard Strauss Salome Los Angeles OperaCompania Nacional de Danza1999Cantonese Opera – An All-Star NightHamburg Ballet A Midsummer Night's Dream2000China National Symphony Orchestra Birmingham Royal Ballet Edward II2001Rossini's La CenerentolaNational Ballet of China Raise the Red Lantern2002Bolshoi Theatre Boris GodunovNational Ballet of China Raise the Red Lantern2003Stuttgart Opera The Abduction from the SeraglioHamburg Ballet Nijinsky2004Komische Oper Berlin The Merry WidowLondon Symphony Orchestra under Gennadi Rozhdestvensky2005Polish National Opera - Otello
Conductor: Jacek Kaspszyk
Director: Mariusz Trelinski
Tenor: Richard Decker
Tenor: Krzysztof BednarekBallet Nacional de Espana Director: Jose Antonio2006Michael Tilson Thomas and San Francisco Symphony Soloist: Lynn HarrellSemper Opera Dresden and Opera Nuremberg Mozart's Don Giovanni
Conductor: Howard Arman
Director: Willy Decker2007Yuri Simonov and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Soloist: Konstantin Lifschitz
Soloist: Boris Belkin
Soloist: Shen WenyuTango Buenos Aires2008Stuttgart Ballet - Swan Lake
Choreographer: John CrankoVladimie Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra
Soloist: Nikolaj Znaider
Soloist: Jean-Yves Thibaudet2009Bernard Haitink and the Chicago Symphony OrchestraLisa Ono A celebration of 50 years of Bossa Nova2010Cantonese Opera TreasuresValery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra2011Cecilia BartoliLost Tango Ute Lemper and the Piazzolla Sextet2012The Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier Third Symphony of Gustav MahlerBavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra - Daniel Harding2013American Ballet Theatre - Dance Gala
AD: Kevin McKenzieTeatro Di San Carlo - Viva Verdi
Conductor: Michele Mariotti
Choral Director: Salvatore Caputo2014Guerzenich Orchestra CologneSavonlinna Opera Festival Gala Concert2015Christian Thielemann & the Staatskapelle DresdenThe Bolshoi Ballet - Jewels2016Compagnia Finzi Pasca - La Verità (The Truth)The Mikhailovsky Ballet - The Sleeping Beauty2017Bayerisches Staatsballett (Bavarian State Ballet) - La BayadèreA co-production between San Francisco Opera and the Hong Kong Arts Festival - Dream of the Red Chamber2018Ballett Zürich - Anna KareninaEstonian National Symphony Orchestra and Estonian National Male Choir2019Marin Alsop with the São Paulo Symphony OrchestraThe Hamburg Ballet-John Neumeier - The World of John Neumeier2020Andris Nelsons with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic)Igor Moiseyev Ballet - Legend of the Century (Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic)2021Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra - Music About ChinaIgor Moiseyev State Academic Ensemble of Popular Dance - Igor Moiseyev Ballet Special2022Paris Opera Ballet Romeo and JulietShanghai Opera House: Concert version of Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci 2023Ballet of the Slovene National Theatre Maribor: Radio and Juliet & The Rite of Spring Bamberg Symphony (Conducted by Jakub Hrůša) 2024Bayerische Staatsoper: Ariadne auf NaxosShanghai Ballet: In the Mood for Love 2025Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna China NCPA Orchestra (Conducted by Lü Jia) 2026Ballet Nacional de España—La Bella Otero Dance Theatre—Dream in The Peony Pavilion
References
External links
The 38th Hong Kong Arts Festival 2010 The 39th Hong Kong Arts Festival 2011 – Events list