The Butterfly Effect is billed as an 'East-West percussion parade' and the idea, according to Tsui, is to put the three drummers with totally diverse backgrounds together with two also very different guitarists and see sparks fly. Sugizo, of superbands Luna Sea and X Japan, is perhaps the best known in this region and will be the show's top draw. The two concerts will be staged at Sha Tin Town Hall.

'These are artists with extremely busy schedules as you can imagine so we are lucky they all found a slot in November,' says Tsui. 'They will start rehearsing 10 days before the concerts and Budgie, who is currently based in Germany, has composed a piece to reflect the rhythm of this city.'

The New Vision Arts Festival, which runs from October 15 to November 21, could have easily opened with this programme had the musicians been able to come a month earlier. But as it stands, Tsui and her team found another renowned artist to kick off the biennial cultural extravaganza which is into its fifth edition.

Having embarked on a two-year project that took her to the far corners of the mainland - Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Yunnan and Guizhou - vocalist Zhu Zheqin, better known as Dadawa, will perform music inspired by this 20,000km musical exploration in the Hear the World concert.

Tsui says finding the right act to open the festival has always been a real challenge, given the mandate for the event: 'There has to have an Asian element to it,' she says. 'It has to be new and innovative and preferably a commissioned work. We don't want to just buy or import a big touring show.'

Dadawa fits that bill perfectly. Appointed a National Goodwill Ambassador for China last year by the United Nations Development Programme that sets out to preserve ethnic minority cultures, the artist and her musical collaborators from these regions put a new and contemporary spin on ancient material, Tsui says. 'This is world music at its most original,' she says.

Mars News Ensemble is a crossover music show of another kind, featuring top Chinese rock musicians Dou Wei, Zhang Chu, Wang Yong and Wang Fan, plus filmmaker Zhu Wen, who provides visuals for their performance. Joining them will be Yoshihiro Hanno from Japan, Hong Kong's Dickson Dee on electronics and bass guitarist Jonas Hellborg from Sweden.

'The key person in this production is Dickson Dee who has worked with these artists before,' Tsui says.

'This is another challenging programme to put together not least because some of the musicians couldn't confirm their availability until very late in the day.

'The show is unique in that it not only crosses cultural boundaries but those of audio and visual arts. Zhu has made a film featuring these musicians in a sci-fi thriller cum comedy and the work will be screened at the concert, with the same musicians performing live music to it.'

Tsui admits this year's New Vision Arts Festival, which costs HK$14 million to put together, is heavy on music programmes - of the 15 shows, eight are concerts and three are operas. But she points out many of these shows also incorporate elements of theatre and drama.

For instance, Zuni Icosahedron's The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci is a multimedia piece featuring New York-based bass Tian Haojing as well as Japanese stage performer Takao Kawaguchi and The Puppet and Its Double Theatre from Taiwan. Sand Moon, also a multimedia production, teams up local actress Jessica Yeung Wai-yee with Jam, one of the hottest folk/world music bands from Xinjiang.

Then there is the Sino-Japanese version of The Peony Pavilion, which will close the festival. Headlined by Japan's most celebrated onnagata (an actor who specialises in female roles) Bando Tamasaburo and the Suzhou Kunqu Opera Theatre, the work is innovative in that it combines the traditional aesthetics of kunqu and kabuki to create something new.

'Tamasaburo is a national treasure in Japan and his grandfather, Kanya Morita XIII, performed with the legendary Chinese opera star Mei Lanfang in Beijing in the 1920s,' says Tsui. 'Critics who have seen the show, which premiered in Japan two years ago, were taken by his portrayal of Du Liniang, the female lead in The Peony Pavilion, which they described as awesomely beautiful, exquisite and elegant. His interpretation of the role is truly impressive.'

She adds that while well-versed in traditions, Tamasaburo stays on the cutting edge of contemporary art and has worked with the late choreographer Maurice Bejart, New York-based dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and cellist Yo-yo Ma.

Tsui says each edition of the New Vision Arts Festival has a different emphasis, largely depending on who they can find. There is no formula or fast and hard rules to follow.

'This festival really is an open platform so, every two years, we start afresh again.'