The Hong Kong Book Fair ended in acrimony yesterday with exhibitors staging a protest over loss of earnings due to the organisers' typhoon arrangements.
The Trade Development Council's week-long fair, reputed to be among the city's most popular and profitable trade exhibitions, should have ended at 5pm.
But a dozen exhibitors kept their stalls open and refused to leave the venue until three hours later, saying they were owed an apology for the breaching of adverse-weather agreements.
Carmen Kwong Wing-suen, editor-in-chief of Up Publications, said arrangements over the past two days had been chaotic because of Typhoon Vicente.
'According to our agreement, the fair should be closed two hours after typhoon signal No8 is hoisted,' she said. 'However, the council cut ticket sales as early as around 3.45pm on Monday [when the Observatory hoisted No8 at 5.45pm] and asked people to leave the venue around five.'
That cost the publishers, as they lost hours of operating time.