The 54th Hong Kong Arts Festival officially opened on 27 February with a performance by the Ballet Nacional de España at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. The festival will run throughout March.
The month-long celebration features more than 1,100 international and local artists across over 180 performances, encompassing more than 45 programmes. The line-up includes six world premieres, six Asia premieres, and six co-productions.
This year’s festival boasts an exceptional lineup of artists, including conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner, award-winning pianists Yunchan Lim and Aristo Sham, acclaimed choreographers Lin Hwai-min and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, ballet star Roberto Bolle, and Cantonese opera veteran Yuen Siu-fai.
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Highlights include contemporary interpretations of classic works such as Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, a Chinese dance theatre adaptation of The Peony Pavilion, and Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. The programme also explores innovative formats, including the experimental “no-actor” play Handle with Care and the mixed-reality experience Kagami by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Organisers announced that 80 percent of the more than 100,000 available tickets have already been sold.
In addition to performances, the festival is hosting approximately 300 outreach and “Plus” events, including workshops, masterclasses, and guided tours designed to engage the wider community.
Tickets to HKAF programmes can be purchased at Urbtix. Tickets to performances at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts are also available through Cityline, while tickets for performances at the Xiqu Centre are also available through the Xiqu Centre Ticket Office.
