The Hong Kong Pride Committee has axed an outdoor festival at Kwun Tong Promenade after being told the venue was unavailable due to “construction work.”
The committee announced on Sunday that the Rainbow Festival, scheduled for the upcoming Saturday at Kwun Tong Promenade, would be cancelled.
A separate indoor event, the Rainbow Market, took place as normal on Sunday at a co-working space called The Wave, also in Kwun Tong.
In October, the committee said on social media that it “has been asked to postpone the outdoor ‘Rainbow Festival’ originally scheduled for November 29” after being notified that the venue had to undergo “urgent construction work” required by the Buildings Department
On Sunday, the organisers published a longer post saying that the outdoor event would be cancelled altogether.
According to the post, although Aquabeat, which operates the promenade event space, said the venue was unavailable due to government construction work, the Buildings Department later clarified that no such work was scheduled for that day.
Aquabeat then told the committee there had been a “communication misunderstanding.”
“After regrouping, we attempted to reapply for the venue in hopes of postponing the event. However, despite several weeks of waiting, we have regrettably not received any response from Aquabeat,” the post read.
“As event preparation requires considerable time, the Organising Committee must, with regret, announce the cancellation,” it added. “Looking ahead, the Organising Committee will continue to strive to bring Hong Kong Pride back to the outdoors.”
The Hong Kong Pride Committee used to organise annual Pride marches in the city, with the last one held in 2018. In 2019, it failed to get approval for a march due to safety concerns amid the anti-extradition protests and unrest and held a static rally instead.
In 2020, the committee held an online event because of Covid-19. Since then, it has not organised any outdoor events, holding only indoor bazaars featuring NGOs selling merchandise and explaining their services to the community.
‘Internal works’
The event’s cancellation comes as some civil society groups in recent years have reported difficulties securing venues for their activities. On some occasions, groups said the venues axed their bookings after receiving “pressure.”
Other LGBTQ groups have also experienced difficulties in finding venues. This year, Pink Dot, Hong Kong’s largest pride event, was called off after the organiser lost its usual site at the West Kowloon Cultural District. The organisers held a virtual concert instead this month.
Cuby Lee, secretariat of the Hong Kong Pride Committee, told HKFP on Monday that she did not wish to speculate on the reason for Aquabeat’s cancellation.
“We are more focused on addressing the cancellation to the community and their disappointment than on the reasons behind the cancellation,” she said.
She added that even after the Buildings Department confirmed there were no government construction works slated for their booking date, Aquabeat said there were “other” works on that day.
The organisers then applied to use the venue on another date, but Aquabeat was very slow to respond, they said.
When HKFP checked on Monday, Aquabeat’s website stated that “AquaBeat 01” – the event space that the committee had booked – would undergo “internal works” from Wednesday to Saturday.
Lee told HKFP that the committee’s communication with government departments in applying for the licences necessary for the event was smooth the first time. But during the same time, it could not proceed with some of the applications without receiving the required information from Aquabeat.
She added that the committee would not give up and would try again next year to hold an outdoor event.
“Outdoor events are what we’ve always done,” she said, referring to the Pride parades it used to organise. “We just want to return to that.”
HKFP has reached out to Aquabeat for comment.
