Authorities to probe concert overrun at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Sports Park
Authorities to look into why show featuring Mirror and other bands ran over the scheduled time, forcing axing of performances by final two acts
A concert featuring more than a half-dozen artists held to test Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Sports Park was cut short on Friday after the show started late and ran about 50 minutes longer than scheduled, prompting officials to vow to look into the matter.
Speaking at the end of the four-hour concert attended by 5,500 people, Commissioner for Sports George Tsoi Kin-pan said: “When the show opened, our understanding was that the time for the audience to enter was different from the original arrangement.
“We will communicate with organisers about the overrun of about 45 to 50 minutes in the actual operation of the concert.”
The “Chill Keng Music Festival” at the indoor Kai Tak Arena was slated to start at 6.30pm, with the line-up including Cantopop boy band Mirror, girl group Collar and various Thai performers such as Scrubb, Serious Bacon, Atlas, D Gerrard, 4Eve, Jeff Satur and Bowkylion.
But the show began at 6.50pm and only ended at 10.40pm, well past the 10pm originally scheduled, with the final two performances axed.
But Tsoi emphasised it was important authorities had effective mechanisms for communication and responding to the overrun. He noted they had established channels to contact transport operators to inform them when concertgoers would be leaving.
