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The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust has been pleased to support the Hong Kong Arts Festival for more than half a century, bringing world-class performances to our city, building audience appreciation for the arts, and helping to nurture local talent.

The opening ceremony of the 52nd Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF) was held today (22 February). Officiating guests included HKSAR Government Under Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Raistlin Lau; HKSAR Government Director of Leisure and Cultural Services Vincent Liu; the Club’s Head of Charities (Culture, Sports and Community Engagement) Winnie Yip; HKAF Chairman Victor Cha and Executive Director Flora Yu.

As a long-term partner of the HKAF, the Club has been supporting three main pillar programmes under The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series since 2008. This year the series features the festival’s opening performance, the Hong Kong premiere of Richard Strauss’s opera Ariadne auf Naxos by the Bavarian State Opera; the Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s performance titled Bright & Black, a captivating collision of classical music and heavy metal; and Le Corsaire by the internationally-acclaimed Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company.

In addition, the Club’s Charities Trust will solely sponsor the Netherlands Chamber Choir’s Van Gogh in Me – an audio-visual exploration of the artist’s work that makes paintings audible and sounds visible. Meanwhile, as part of a continuing commitment to arts diversity and accessibility, HKartsFestival@TaiKwun will offer immersive arts performances at Tai Kwun.

To nurture students’ appreciation of the arts, the Club has for many years supported The Hong Kong Jockey Club Student Matinee Programme, which enables students to enjoy free performances. This year the programme includes the first Hong Kong concert of Hankyung arte Philharmonic, led by Hong Kong elite conductor Wilson Ng. A hybrid format comprising a guided talk introducing the programme will be offered to students before and after the performance. Students living in remote districts will also continue to benefit from the Club’s transport subsidy scheme to attend the programmes.

Sports and Culture is one of the priority areas of the Club’s Charities Trust. The Club will continue to support a wide range of arts and cultural initiatives citywide and support the Central Government’s vision of developing Hong Kong into an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange, as outlined in the National 14th Five-Year Plan.

The Club’s support for the Hong Kong Arts Festival, like all of its charity donations, is made possible by its unique integrated business model through which racing and wagering generate employment, tax and charity support for the community.