The West Kowloon Cultural District Unveils Performing Arts Season 2022-2023

Featuring the first-ever art-tech festival, Creative Tomorrow, exclusively sponsored by The Hong Kong Jockey Club

The West Kowloon Cultural District (the District) unveils its Performing Arts Season 2022-2023 today. Under the theme “Wonders Await”, the new season features a dazzling array of live in-venue performances and events as well as online programmes, spanning Cantonese opera, music, theatre and dance, learning and participation as well as experiential installations, games and workshops. Over 500 performances and events will be staged at the District’s Freespace, the Xiqu Centre and the Art Park from July 2022 to June 2023.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought physical performances to a halt and resulted in the repeated closure of the arts and cultural facilities in the District. Since 2020, more than 1,400 performances and events were either cancelled or rescheduled. Despite the challenges, the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (the Authority) is committed to bringing quality arts and cultural experiences to audiences. This season promises to be the largest in scale and widest in scope since the opening of the two performing arts venues and the Art Park, participated by artists and art groups from Hong Kong, Mainland China and overseas.

A key highlight of this Performing Arts Season, “Creative Tomorrow”, exclusively sponsored by The Hong Kong Jockey Club, is a major, first of its kind arts-tech festival in the District. Where technology meets transformative programming in a display of creativity, the festival embodies xiqu, theatre, music, dance, outdoors and indoors installations to provide new and exciting experience to artists and audiences alike. Programme highlights include “TechBox: Interaction of Colour in Space (Work-in-progress)” which debuts in July, followed by “Magic Tea House” in August at the Tea House Theatre of Xiqu Centre, a first for Hong Kong featuring an original Cantonese opera featuring robotics and AI technology. A humanoid robot, emulating the facial expression, voice and body gestures of renowned Cantonese Opera artist Law Ka-ying will perform on stage as the main cast.

Festival highlights to be held in Freespace include Phygital D, a series of physical and digital dance programmes running from September to October combining multimedia installations, motion capture, film and virtual reality to create new dimensions of dance experience. The popular Freespace Jazz Fest will return in late October in a bigger scale than before. Running for the fourth consecutive year, the much-anticipated music event will be expanded to Wonderland, an event space in the District, for the first time, with a themed market to add excitement to the festival. With five days of music and cultural events covering both Freespace and outdoor venues in the District, music lovers will be able to indulge in a long weekend of art and culture, food and drink, and wonderful jazz music.

"Creative Tomorrow” will also showcase ground-breaking spectacles in the District’s outdoor venues curated by Hong Kong-based media art curator and researcher Kyle Chung. One major highlight is “Borealis”, created by Swiss artist Dan Acher, which features a captivating light installation set over the Art Park that enables audiences to experience the wonder of the Northern Lights in West Kowloon. Further details of "Creative Tomorrow” will be unveiled in August.

Apart from "Creative Tomorrow”, audiences should stay tune of other exciting offerings in the Performing Arts Season 2022/23. These include performances, premieres and returns of award-winning works such as:

• The Impossible Trial – a musical, co-presented by Freespace and the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre and sponsored by Panasonic. The musical will be premiered in September 2022
• Friends of Hong Kong Association Presents: Black Box Chinese Opera Festival 2022, which brings award-winning works and new creations in a festival in October - December 2022
• Freespace Dance presents seminal works by female choreographers and dance artists (April - May 2023)
• WestK Pop Festival – the first-ever Pop Festival in the District (March 2023)
• Freespace Weekly Gigs showcases local musical talents (Year round)
• The Dance WE Made @West Kowloon (Year round)

"Thanks to the support from our sponsors and donors, our new Performing Arts Season promises to make bold strides in showing how art and technology can be combined across different spectrums,” said Paul Tam, Executive Director, Performing Arts of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority. “This season’s creatively curated programmes are filled with innovation and vigour and are a testament to the Authority’s vision to build creative and diverse performing arts programmes. We look forward to inspiring more artists, curators and tech professionals to work together to add a creative spark to performing arts – and deliver unique experiences to our discerning audience.”

Tickets for programmes in the Performing Arts Season will open in phases. For the latest updates on programmes and ticketing arrangements, please visit http://wk.org.hk/season2223.

Season Video: http://wk.org.hk/season2223-video
Season Booklet: https://wk.org.hk/season2223-booklet

Remarks

About the West Kowloon Cultural District
The West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the largest and most ambitious cultural projects in the world. Its vision is to create a vibrant new cultural quarter for Hong Kong on forty hectares of reclaimed land located alongside Victoria Harbour. With a varied mix of theatres, performance spaces, and museums, the West Kowloon Cultural District will produce and host world-class exhibitions, performances, and cultural events, providing 23 hectares of public open space, including a two-kilometre waterfront promenade.
http://www.westkowloon.hk/

About The Hong Kong Jockey Club
Founded in 1884, The Hong Kong Jockey Club is a world-class racing club that acts continuously for the betterment of our society. The Club has a unique integrated business model, comprising racing and racecourse entertainment, a membership club, responsible sports wagering and lottery, and charities and community contribution. Through this model, the Club generates economic and social value for the community and supports the Government in combatting illegal gambling. In 2020/21, the Club returned a total of HK$29.4 billion to the community. This included HK$24.9 billion to the Government in duty, profits tax and Lotteries Fund contributions and HK$4.5 billion in approved charity donations. The Club is Hong Kong’s largest single taxpayer and one of the city’s major employers. Its Charities Trust is also one of the world’s top ten charity donors. The Club is always “riding high together for a better future” with the people of Hong Kong. Please visit www.hkjc.com.