words yvonne teh

This year an extension to the HK Arts Festival will foster a deeper understanding between performers and audiences.

The folks behind the HK Arts Festival are, to put it mildly, ambitious. Not content with organizing a bumper fest that over 33 days encompasses more than 120 cultural performances – not counting the 32 shows of Battuta, Zingaro’s equestrian extravaganza that the festival is co-sponsoring with the HK Jockey Club – they also are presenting 25 other events in a section officially known as Festival Plus.

Tisa Ho, the HK Arts Festival’s Executive Director, says Festival Plus was launched with the aim of giving “our visiting artists as well as local artists, their audiences and other interested people more extended opportunities for contact and exchange”. A recent innovation in the history of the now 36-year-old annual performing arts showcase, it is, she says, intended to act as a catalyst for development in Hong Kong and a way of bringing artists and audience together.

This year, the Festival Plus events run the gamut from meet-the-artists sessions which will give general audiences the opportunity for a relaxed interaction with featured performers, to more formal and limited talks and master classes which, Ho says, could perhaps offer insight and particular guidance to those seeking to follow in the artists’ footsteps. Some of these outreach programmes will take place after performances, others before – much of the scheduling, Ho explains, boils down to logistics: “It depends on when people are in town.” Cost is also a serious consideration, as the festival can’t afford to extend the performers’ stay by even a day.

So it is a big deal that this year’s Festival Plus includes not just lecture demonstrations, dance workshops, arts exchange programmes and TV specials featuring guest artists but also an international symposium at the Fringe Club on Saturday, February 23, not directly related to any particular performance. Providing simultaneous Cantonese and English interpretation at that event will increase its cost, as will the attendance of featured participants not coming to Hong Kong to take part in any of the other festival programmes. One of those will be Eugene Downs, the first Chief Executive of Culture Ireland, the Irish government agency established to promote Irish arts worldwide.

“In previous years,” Ho notes, “[the Plus Symposium] sort of developed rather opportunistically.” A number of extraordinary people, including managers and people with special insights, were here as part of the festival anyway, so it seemed a good idea to bring them together with their audiences and neophytes to pass on insights and experiences. But this time around, with the Funding Models – “How Should We Fund the Arts?” symposium, the arts festival is taking a step further. A group of outstanding speakers of varied interests and expertise but who share a global view of funding have been specially invited to discuss issues Ho believes are pertinent to the arts today.

For all that, though, the HK Arts Festival’s Executive Director admits, “We cannot afford, nor would I think it wise, to put a lot of resources into [Festival] Plus at the cost of something else.” Consequently, a considerable amount of thought, consideration and planning goes towards ensuring that “every cent that we can scramble is put into making sure that the programmes are good, and the ones that we want to do”.

Ho is also candid about the fact that some of the HK Arts Festival’s invited guests may prove more willing and able than others to take part in outreach activities. “It’s all a matter of negotiating and discussion, and working with people’s strengths,” she says. And with a laugh, “If somebody really hates to do it, there’s no point making them, you know!” Among this year’s performers some are like that, whereas others are amazingly obliging.

In particular, there’s no disguising Ho’s delight when talking about Joanna MacGregor, the distinguished pianist who, in addition to giving a rare performance of Messiaen’s Vingt Regards Sur L’Enfant Jésus (Twenty Contemplations on the Infant Jesus) will also offer a special pre-concert talk to help her audience understand that demanding piece of music. And on March 9, the day following the recital, MacGregor will give yet another talk in which she promises to “share stories and experiences from her world-wide performances, and offer insights into the eclectic repertoire of music she performs.”

At the end of the day, though, Ho hopes “everybody who comes to Festival Plus will come to our [main] events because that is at the centre, at the heart, of everything we do. So, do please come to the performances first. The other things are exactly as we call them: Plus. Don’t just eat the icing, and not the cake!”

The 36th HK Arts Festival will run from February 14 to March 16. For more details about its Festival Plus component, contact the HK Arts Festival, 2823 2430, or go to www.hk.artsfestival.org/en/prog/plus