2005 Hong Kong Arts Festival Advance Sales Break Records! Counter Booking begin Saturday

December 01st, 2004

The four-week advance booking period for the 2005 Hong Kong Arts Festival has now come to an end. Response has been exceptionally strong, with the box office income accounting for over HK$12 million, which has set a new record for advance sales. Close to 6,000 advance booking forms were received, which exceeds last year's total by 1,000. More than 45,000 tickets - about 40% of the total capacity - are already sold. Patrons continued to make use of the quick and convenient electronic booking facility, with almost two-thirds of the advance bookings placed via the Internet, an increase of one-third over last year's total.

Tickets going fast!

Counter booking for tickets will go on sale from 10:00am on Saturday, 4 December from all URBTIX and HK Ticketing outlets.

Fans and Festival goers who have not yet booked their seats will be able to purchase the remaining tickets over the counter at URBTIX outlets from the end of this week onwards. Tickets to performances at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts will also be available from HK Ticketing outlets.

Best-sellers

Based on the actual number of tickets sold, the top 12 favourite programmes are: the Beethoven Symphonic Cycle; National Theatre Company of China - Amber; Ballet Nacional de Espana; Polish National Opera - Otello; Collectif AOC - La Syncope du 7; Kun Opera - The Palace of Eternal Youth; Bejart Ballet Lausanne; L'Oratorio d'Aurelia; The Nightingale; All That Shanghai Jazz; The Blind Boys of Alabama and Footsbarn Travelling Theatre - Perchance to Dream.

There are only a limited number of remaining tickets to these much sought after performances: The Mozart Requiem, Kun Opera - The Palace of Eternal Youth, the Russian Orthodox Choir, Brazilian Guitar Quartet, L'Oratorio d'Aurelia, Collectif AOC - La Syncope du 7, Rachel Cheung Piano Recital, The French Kiss, Polish National Opera - Otello and All That Shanghai Jazz. Also, the music theatre spectacle Amber and the large scale Ballet Nacional de Espana have already sold over half their tickets. Tickets to the above performances are scarce so act fast!

Extra shows

As a result of strong demand the Festival is also delighted to announce that one additional matinee performance on the 19 February has been arranged for the theatre production, The French Kiss; and one additional evening performance on the 8 March for the Russian Orthodox Choir.

Ticket hotlines

As well as booking tickets over the counter, patrons can also order their Festival tickets on the following hotlines:URBTIX Telephone Reservations: 2734 9009 (from 5 December onwards)URBTIX Telephone Credit Card Bookings: 2111 5999URBTIX Registered Patron Telephone Bookings & Application: 2734 9011HK Ticketing Booking Hotline: 31 288 288 (for HK Academy for Performing Arts performances only)

The Festival Programme & Booking Guide is available at all URBTIX outlets, while free copies of the Festival VCD/CD-ROMs with video intros and CD samplers with audio excerpts of selected programmes can be picked up from the Festival Information Counters located at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and Hong Kong City Hall. More information on the Festival can also be found on our web site at www.hk.artsfestival.org.

For further enquiries, please contact Ms Katy Cheng on 2824 3555.

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