McDull's dream show at West Kowloon on hold
The departure of former arts hub chief Graham Sheffield disrupted plans to stage the first symphony concert at an open-air piazza in West Kowloon.
Yip Wing-sie, who conducted the first of six performances of Stargazing by the Sea with McDull at the Hong Kong City Hall last week, said the concert featuring the popular animated piglet had been conceived as an outdoor event at the site of the West Kowloon Cultural District.
'During our brainstorming sessions with McDull's creators early this year, we agreed there was not a better place than West Kowloon to highlight the theme about stars, sky and the sea,' said Yip.
McDull, the much-loved animated piglet, has four films to his name since his debut as a supporting character to better-looking friend McMug in comics in the 1990s.
Last month, he was honoured with statues at the Avenue of Stars at Tsim Sha Tsui and at Madame Tussauds at The Peak.
Yip said organisers had hoped Sheffield, former head of London's Barbican arts centre, would find a way to host the large-scale outdoor concert at a temporary venue on the West Kowloon site.
But the controversial departure of Sheffield, who quit in January after only five months in the job, citing ill-health, ended those plans.
'Had Graham stayed, the project's continuity would have been maintained. As we can't do it this year, let's hope for next year,' she said, quoting Michael Lynch, Sheffield's successor, as saying, 'the stars and sea will still be around next year'.
Yip estimated that an outdoor concert would attract as many as 40,000 people, as opposed to 1,400 who crammed City Hall.
Lynch, who was at Thursday's concert, hoped the event could be held outdoors next year, adding: 'I love the idea of the piglet.
'We'll be looking at a range of things for next year. We need to get absolute control of the space so that we can deal with the noise, the location and a whole lot of logistics.'
But before any of that can happen, organisers need a permit from the Lands Department to use any part of the West Kowloon site.
That is no exception, even for bosses at the HK$21.6 billion West Kowloon Cultural district, which will contain arts venues, a piazza, a museum and exhibition centre when it is completed in late 2015 or early 2016
Thursday's concert ended with footage of McDull dancing on the West Kowloon waterfront, as the orchestra played Tales from the Vienna Woods by Johann Strauss Jnr.
'I hope in the very near future we'll stage this programme by the sea and under the sky,' Yip told the audience. 'If you wonder where it will be, look for a clue in the footage we just showed you.'
