A sixth of Hong Kong Arts Festival shows lost to coronavirus outbreak, as organisers wait on more cancellations

Venue closures to curb the spread of disease force the organisers of city’s No.1 arts event to cancel multiple programmes in its first week

Theatre, dance, and music fans will all miss out; organisers hope to ‘present as much of the festival as possible’, either as scheduled or at a later date

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Five performances of We Are Gay, by Hong Kong playwright Candace Chong, at the Hong Kong Arts Festival have been cancelled. Organisers have cancelled nine programmes and are waiting to see whether the government reopens venues in time to avoid more cancellations. Photo: Michael C.W. Chiu

Published: 5:22pm, 3 Feb 2020Updated: 5:43pm, 3 Feb 2020

Nearly a sixth of Hong Kong Arts Festival performances have been lost to the coronavirus outbreak, organisers said on Monday.

On top of the cancellation of two much anticipated Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts on February 12 and 13, music fans will miss out on performances by the Hong Kong Sinfonietta on February 8 and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra on February 15 and 16.

Dance fans will not get to see A Quiet Evening of Dance (February 18), a tribute to US choreographer William Forsythe by London’s Sadler’s Wells. Theatre lovers hoping to see the Bristol Old Vic’s production of Cyrano (February 12 to 16), the February 14-16 performances of We Are Gay, an original Cantonese drama by Candace Chong Mui-ngam, and Nassim (February 11 to 15) by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour will also be disappointed. A workshop and a talk have also been scrapped.

The 20 performances cancelled, out of 123 scheduled throughout the festival, were all to have been presented in venues that have been closed indefinitely under emergency measures brought in by the Hong Kong government. By minimising large gatherings, it hopes to limit the spread of the coronavirus that originated in China’s Hubei province and which has so far killed more than 350 people and infected more than 17,000.

“We will do our best to present as much of the festival as possible, either as scheduled or with unavoidable postponement,” said its executive director, Tisa Ho. “That said, the health and safety of our audience, artists and staff must remain our top priority.