It has been a long time since the Youth Arts Festival (HKYAF), which opens on October 29, was an event supported mainly by the parents of its contributors. Now in its sixth incarnation, it has grown to almost adult proportions, with a very grown-up budget of $5 million and probably the most professional line-up of performances and exhibitions so far.
Some purists might argue the festival's youth element has been diluted by all the extra acts that have crept in this year. Instead of being a festival by kids for kids, there are lots of shows by adults for kids, like the Academy for Performing Arts (APA) production of The Wizard of Oz; Annie, performed by the Hong Kong Singers; and the American Community Theatre's Christmas pageant.
Festival founder and director Lindsay McAlister is upbeat about this break with tradition. She wants the festival to be as inclusive as possible. The HKYAF did not fund these shows, but was happy to help publicise them. 'We contacted lots of groups and told them our dates, and asked if they were doing anything around that time. Then we put them in our brochure, but not under our banner.' Some of the professionals have reciprocated by offering to do things for the younger contributors to the festival. 'The APA have been brilliant,' McAlister beams. 'They are opening up some rehearsals to the kids, and holding special creative dance workshops for them.' McAlister's greatest success has perhaps been facilitating this kind of co-operation. For her, Hong Kong is packed full of creative talent, waiting to be tapped. She can never understand why people say there is not much going on. 'I hate that!' Her vision has spread to the young people she works with. At the launch of the festival, in a crowded room in the China Club, where patron David Tang makes a speech, there are dozens of these young artists in various states of costume, eager to push a flyer in the face of any adult who passes.
Unfortunately, McAlister's spirit is not quite enough to temper the competitive streak among the teachers working on these performances. Two of them nearly come to blows over who gets to talk about their show first.
Perhaps McAlister can afford to be generous partly because her own productions as a director so easily outshine almost all other efforts. This year, she is directing two plays, the first a sepia-toned version of Roald Dahl's story, Matilda.
Getting the rights to this story from Dahl's widow, Liccy, would have been difficult except that McAlister's great ally Mr Tang stepped in again (he was a friend of the Dahl family).
