The show, dubbed “The Great Voices of Legislative Council” and organised by city non-profit organisation Blue Planet Action as a National Day celebration, was scheduled for next Friday at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Wan Chai.

The concert was ditched just two hours after three New People’s Party lawmakers said they would withdraw.

Eunice Yung Hoi-yan of the party, who earlier said she would perform Leslie Cheung’s Cantopop classic “Monica”, said on social media that the three had decided to pull out “in the hope that people could focus more on our work”.

The free concert, the Chinese name of which is a reference to a city television talent show, attracted attention after a farewell dinner held for Wong Tai Sin district officer Steve Wong Chi-wah by grass roots Beijing loyalist groups last Thursday sparked controversy.

Former chief executive Leung Chun-ying said the pro-establishment camp had to stop “ostentatious and extravagant” displays.

Veteran member Martin Liao Cheung-kong was understood to have cautioned fellow lawmakers in a text message sent to all legislators over the weekend, telling them to watch out for potential bad press if they received more media coverage on their entertainment engagements than their day jobs.

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Lawmaker Reverend Peter Koon Ho-ming on Tuesday admitted the farewell dinner saga, which led to criticism of the concert, had derailed the event. But he felt Liao’s reminder was not aimed at the show.

“The organiser has been under immense pressure,” Koon said. “Even if it’s supposed to be a fun event, they felt it was better to call it off if it was generating news every day.”

He said Blue Planet Action had wanted to hold an event in the run-up to National Day on October 1 and got together with lawmakers to come up with a novel approach.

They drew inspiration from the hit TV show Midlife, Sing & Shine!, which featured middle-aged contestants.

“Perhaps we would not have got into trouble had it just been called a ‘National Day celebration’ and not the gimmicky name,” Koon said.

Organisation for the event began around the start of the year, according to Michael Lee Chun-keung of the Liberal Party, who added some lawmakers were still keen to perform.

“We have been standing firm [to carry on], then the organiser made the decision, which we only learned about today,” Lee said.

“It would be quite groundbreaking to see officials and legislators sharing the same stage for a variety of programmes, wouldn’t it? We were hoping to sing the praises of Hong Kong through the celebration of National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival.”

The concert organiser said “government officials” would perform alongside the lawmakers and be interviewed by “child reporters” on stage.

Folk performances and oral history sharing by senior citizens were also scheduled to be included.

Free tickets were expected to be given to the less-privileged, the elderly, the disabled and people from ethnic minority groups.

Lawmaker Doreen Kong Yuk-foon, who agreed to take part in the event, said she had always viewed the concert as a way for politicians to engage with the public.

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She added she thought singing a song “would not be that different from handing out freebies in the community”.

“I thought it was a good idea to meet the people this way and didn’t see it in a complicated way,” Kong said.

But she promised to exercise more caution before she accepted invitations to appear at similar events in the future.

Blue Planet Action, chaired by Lee Pui-yee, was incorporated in Hong Kong in July 2021, with about 19 lawmakers listed as honorary advisers.

Its website showed it had held ice hockey training events, as well as activities for ethnic minority groups, in recent times.

The non-profit also held a flash mob music performance of patriotic Chinese tunes in May that featured home affairs minister Alice Mak Mei-kuen.