The Hong Kong Arts Festival, founded in 1973, is an annual series of cultural programmes in Hong Kong, with many performances from other parts of the world. Held every February/March, HKAF has become an important focus of Hong Kong cultural life and promoter of the performing arts. Programme highlights are announced in August each year, with full line up and advance booking from October to December. Genres seen and heard at the Hong Kong Arts Festival include classical music, Chinese music, world music, Western opera, Chinese opera, drama and dance. HKAF presented top international artists and ensembles, such as Cecilia Bartoli, Jose 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. The Hong Kong Arts Festival also commissions, produces and publishes new works in theatre, chamber opera and contemporary dance by Hong Kong's creative talents and emerging artists, many with successful subsequent runs in Hong Kong and overseas. The 2014 festival featured FILTH by Jingan Young, the first English language play ever commissioned by the festival. HKAF invests in arts education for young people through various projects. The "HKAF Young Friends" has reached about 700,000 secondary and tertiary school students since 1992. Close to 9,000 half-price student tickets are issued each year. Over 100 Festival PLUS activities are organised in community locations each year to enhance the engagement between artists and audiences. These include lecture demonstrations, masterclasses, workshops, symposia, backstage visits, exhibitions, meet-the-artist sessions, and guided tours. The Hong Kong Arts Festival Society Limited is a non-profit organisation, with about 30% of annual revenue from government funding, around 40% from the box office, and the remaining 30% from sponsorships and donations from corporations, individuals, and charitable foundations.
List of Committee Members (The 46th Hong Kong Arts Festival, 2018)
Past and Current Chairmen and Directors
Past Festival Programmes (incomplete)
New works and recent tours
The HKAF is very active at promoting and engaging homegrown creative talents and emerging artists through commissioning producing and publishing new works in theatre, chamber opera and contemporary dance. Some of these productions go on to successful subsequent runs in Hong Kong and overseas. In 2008, the HKAF commissioned and produced the production, Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare for the 36th HKAF as part of its New Works series, and was later featured in a second run in the 40th HKAF in 2012 before participating in Globe to Globe, a World Shakespeare Festival at the Globe Theatre in London in which 37 of Shakespeare’s plays were performed in different languages. This was the first Cantonese production to be performed at the Globe. The HKAF in 2014 featured FILTH by Jingan Young, the first English language play ever commissioned by the festival. In 2013, the 41st HKAF commissioned the New Stage Series, Heart of Coral, a chamber opera about the life of Xiao Hong, one of the most celebrated female Chinese writers. The opera production was later featured in Taiwan at "Hong Kong Week 2014 @ Taipei" as part of a cultural exchange organized by the Hong Kong-Taiwan Cultural Co-operation Committee. The Crowd, another HKAF commissioned production which is written by Shanghai-based writer Yu Rongjun and directed by Hong Kong theater director, Tang Wai-kit for the HKAF in 2015 was also performed in Shanghai in April 2015. Co-commissioned by the HKAF and the Shakespeare’s Globe, renowned Hong Kong theatre directorTang Shu-wing premiered his Cantonese production of Macbeth at the Globe Theatre in London in August 2015, 4 years after the debut of his production of Titus Andronicus as part of the Globe to Globe initiative. Macbeth was then staged at the 44th HKAF.
