Chinese New Year celebrations may dominate the calendar this month, but there’s plenty more beyond just traditional lunar festivities lined up. From The Great Gatsby and the Hong Kong Arts Festival to the meat-devoid Vegetarian Food Asia fair and the annual International Jewellery Show, here’s our round-up of the top February Events in Hong Kong.
Lunar New Year Lantern Exhibition
1-28 Feb
Illuminated by literally hundreds of multihued lanterns, Hong Kong’s markets will be awash with more than enough colours to delight any nocturnal shopper as Hong Kong ushers in the new lunar year with fanfare. With many of the city’s best-known landmarks, as well its traditional retail locales, once again set to be transformed, it’s the perfect time to post your entanglement with Hong Kong’s biggest festival on Instagram or just to bask in the beauty of it all.
Multiple locations.
Year of the Pig Fireworks
6 Feb
It’s once again time for Hong Kong’s most awe-inspiring fireworks display of the year, with its spectacular aerial pyrotechnics this time marking the dawn of The Year of The Pig. For 2019, the skies above Victoria Harbour are expected to be ablaze for a very precise 23 minutes, which is more than enough time to stand, gaze and point in wonder at this most traditional display of Chinese pageantry. With the harbourside set to be as busy as the heavens, best get there early if you’re looking for a prime vantage spot.
Multiple locations.
The Great Gatsby
15-17 Feb
The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald’s Great American Novel – is returning to the stage, but this time as a ballet. As ever, though, the performance will transport audiences back to the world of New York high society back in the Roaring ’20s, where this glamorous tale of abundance, excess and dark romance will beguilingly play out. Making its Asia-wide premiere in Hong Kong, an extravagant array of movement and dance is promised, as well as music by award-winning blues singer E Faye Butler.
Lyric Theatre, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, 1 Gloucester Rd, Wan Chai. HK$140-1,000.
Longines Masters of Hong Kong
15-17 Feb
The annual Longines Masters event remains one of Asia’s few truly world-class indoor show jumping competitions. Its seventh edition is set to welcome 30 of the most internationally successful horses and riders, and promises thrills galore as they are put through their paces in this notoriously demanding tournament. After the main events, the fun is set to continue with glamorous after-parties and exclusive DJ sets. There’s also a lavish three-course gastronomic dinner on offer to those whose equine equity is deemed high enough.
AsiaWorld–Expo, Airport Expo Blvd, Chek Lap Kok. HK$250-850.
Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon
17 Feb
The Hong Kong Marathon is back and promises to be better than ever thanks to a whole host of new challenges that have been incorporated into its ever-demanding course. With 74,000 runners anticipated to hit Hong Kong’s streets, a tsunami of sweat and a torrent of tired limbs is expected to sweep the city, with all participants determined to beat the rest, beat their personal best and secure one of the prized finishers’ medals. The event also has a charitable side, with all proceeds raised dedicated to aiding a Third World footwear fund.
Race start point: Tsim Sha Tsui, end point: Victoria Park, Causeway Bay.
Hong Kong Arts Festival
21-23 Feb
Chinese opera, ballet, symphony orchestras… That can only mean one thing – the Hong Kong Arts Festival is back, with its 47th iteration promising a cavalcade of cultural diversions under this year’s overarching theme: At Every Stage. Gathered under this capacious umbrella are such stone-cold classics as Wagner’s Tannhäuser, with this 1845 operatic masterpiece being performed in Hong Kong for the very first time. This year, it’s tussling for top-billing with another outstanding offering – a trio of performances from the historic Hamburg Ballet.
Locations and schedules vary.
Ode to the Silk Road
22-24 Feb
Join the Hong Kong Dance Company for its peerless production of Ode to the Silk Road, a breathtaking terpsichorean tour of the finest cultural imaginings from both the East and the West. Helping navigate through this continent-hopping display of dancing diversity are a number of the foremost talents currently treading the boards, including Ding Wei, Tian Lu and Psaha. As well as remarkable rhythmic routines, the show has already won plaudits for both its passion and its array of inspired costumery.
Kwai Tsing Theatre Auditorium, 12 Hing Ning Rd, Kwai Chung. HK$120–320.
Vegetarian Food Asia
22-24 Feb
Hong Kong’s first and only trade fair for the meat-averse, Vegetarian Food Asia is set to celebrate its fourth year by welcoming 223 exhibitors from across Asia, as well as countless consumers and professional buyers from across the wider region. As well as showcasing the growing array of non-carnivorous cuisine now on offer, this year, the show will also be offering a public tasting zone, workshops on vegetarian cooking techniques and seminars on healthier living.
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, 1 Expo Drive, Wan Chai.
Hong Kong International Jewellery Show
28 Feb-4 Mar
The world’s pre-eminent marketplace for fine jewellery, the HKTDC Hong International Jewellery Show this year promises more than 2,500 exhibitors from across 30 countries and territories. While finished jewellery is the focus of the event, areas dedicated to antiques, silver and jade (among many others) are also promised. Pretty parades, design competitions and country pavilions; make sure you get a golden ticket to this one.
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, 1 Expo Drive, Wan Chai. HK$100.
