Visitors wander in the heat for hours not knowing when they can queue for scramble-viewing tickets
Poor arrangements for the culmination of the Cheung Chau Bun Festival, last night's bun scramble, left many revellers wandering the island for hours and cooled their interest in the revived tradition.
Many who wanted to see the bun climb first-hand blamed the organiser, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, for not specifying when they could queue for tickets to the football pitch in front of the Pak Tai Temple, where the 14-metre steel bun tower stood.
Expecting the queue would start to build as early as 10am, 20-year-old Bernard Lau Wing-ho arrived at Cheung Chau at 8.30am with his girlfriend, Rowena Cheng Oi-kwan.
'It was quite disorganised. I searched on the internet for the arrangement details, but it didn't say when the queuing time was,' said Mr Lau, who was among the first in the line at 5.40pm.
The department and police initially told the public tickets would be distributed to the first 1,000 people in the queue, who would be admitted to the football pitch at 10.30pm. The next 1,200 people would watch the climb on big screens at two sports centres.
But they refused to specify a time for queuing to start or when tickets would be distributed, saying plans would be made once the crowds were assessed.