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The 51st Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF) opened today (17 February) with the theme of “Coming Back, Moving Forward”. The Hong Kong Jockey Club continues to support this leading arts extravaganza in a partnership that dates back to the festival’s launch over five decades ago. The opening ceremony was held at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. Officiating guests included HKSAR Chief Executive John Lee, HKSAR Government Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung, Director of Leisure and Cultural Services Vincent Liu, Club Steward Martin Liao, HKAF Chairman Victor Cha and HKAF Executive Director Flora Yu.

Sports and Culture is one of the focus areas of the Club’s charity strategy. Its support for the HKAF is further testament to the Club’s efforts to promote arts and culture and foster a creative atmosphere in which Chinese and Western cultures can come together. This helps to position Hong Kong as Asia’s city of culture and creativity as outlined in the National 14th Five-Year Plan. As with all its donations, the Club’s support for the HKAF is made possible by its unique integrated business model through which racing and wagering generate tax and charity support for the community.

As a long-term partner of the HKAF, the Club is supporting three main pillar programmes under The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series, which has brought some of the world’s leading performances to Hong Kong since 2008. This year, the series features the Festival’s opening performance, Radio and Juliet & Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) performed by the Ballet of Slovene National Theatre Maribor; a Hong Kong premiere of the opera Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse (The Return of Ulysses) directed by William Kentridge and performed by The Ricercar Consort and Handspring Puppet Company; and the Sky Burial concert performed by Insula orchestra and accentus.

To nurture students’ appreciation of top-class artistic performances, the Club for has many years supported The Hong Kong Jockey Club Student Matinee Programme, which enables students to enjoy free performances. This year the programme includes the Asian premiere of Peer Gynt, performed by the Ballet of Slovene National Theatre Maribor. A hybrid format comprising a guided talk introducing the programme will be offered to students prior to the performance. Students living in remote districts will continue to benefit from the Club’s transport subsidy scheme to attend the programmes.

The Club is also pleased to support a variety of additional exciting performances showcasing the best of Hong Kong’s rising talent. They include:

The Jockey Club Local Creative Talents Series. Vixen, an immersive opera using creative technology, is a brilliant collaboration between Hong Kong artists and an award-winning UK company Silent Opera.

The Jockey Club InnoArts Series. An immersive soundscape with interactive lighting and dance, First Steps is a collaboration between Hong Kong artists and Tamanoir Immersive Studio from France.

HKartsFestival@TaiKwun. A series of art performances in various disciplines will be staged at Tai Kwun between 15-26 February.

For more details and the most up-to-date information please visit www.hk.artsfestival.org/en/.