The landmark arts festival hit by a sudden flood that had artists grabbing for their favourite pictures
- Hong Kong’s 1955 Festival of the Arts, billed as the first cultural event of its kind, boasted a wide programme of operas, art and stage performances
- During the opening ball, when 400 paintings were being judged, a flood washed in from torrential rains that soaked the lightly built pavilions
“Festival of the Arts: Hongkong To Have First Cultural Event of Its Kind,” read a South China Morning Post headline on December 19, 1954.
A celebration of music, drama, literature and the visual arts, the three-week festival was to open with a ball at the Kam Ling Restaurant on April 1, 1955, which organisers promised “to be a larger and even gayer affair than it was last year, when there was no festival to celebrate”, the Post reported on March 16.
“If we seek to prove that Hongkong is not a cultural wilderness, we must show it not only by the standard achieved in the arts but also by the interest and support which the general public affords them,” governor Alexander Grantham wrote in the foreword of the festival’s programme, detailed by the newspaper on April 2.
The programme included Cantonese and Peking operas, paintings by local schoolchildren, Chinese contemporary art, and oils and watercolours of the Hongkong Art Club, as well as English stage comedies, the article continued.
During the opening ball, which attracted about 350 dancers in fancy dress, an “incident occurred during the judging of more than 400 paintings”, the Post also reported that day. “Artists gasped and grabbed for their favourite pictures […] as a flood washed in from torrential rains,” the story continued. “The sudden burst thundered on thin metal roofs; lightning lit up exhibition chambers that had become too dark by mid-afternoon to continue with the judging; and dark patches of sodden cardboard began to appear along joints in the lightly built pavilions.”
Over the course of the festival, 50,000 people visited the main exhibition centre. It closed on April 24 with speeches and a prize presentation ceremony that, on the day, the Post said “underlined the complete success of the innovation”.
