The Earth Day Festival will be staged on Sunday despite the Government's failure to provide funding for what is being billed as Hong Kong's largest environmental event. Last year the festival was partially bankrolled by the Government's Environmental and Conservation Fund but, four months ago, organisers were told not to expect money this year. The secretary-general of the Government's Environmental Campaign Committee, Mabel Mak Lok-sheung, said it would cost too much to fund both World Environment Day and Earth Day. However, the committee had offered other assistance to the Earth Day organisers which was not accepted, she said. Earth Day - celebrated in 184 countries - started as a grassroots celebration in 1970. This year the chief Hong Kong organiser is a company which designs and manufactures recycling bins, Time to Recycle, a new commercial offshoot of the green charity group Able (A Better Living Environment). The project's director and company founder, Tobias Forster, did not want to dwell on the government funding issue, focusing instead on corporate sponsors who had stepped in, including Sony, Shell and Epson. The free festival, to be held between noon and 8pm on the former Tamar site in Admiralty, is expected to attract 25,000 people. There will be Canto-pop singers and a market with stalls featuring non-polluting vehicles and wind and solar power. An art gallery will exhibit works by local and international Hong Kong schools. Time to Recycle will also launch a recycling bin design it hopes to see soon in shopping centres, hotels and other venues around Hong Kong. Community group Clear the Air will hold a mask parade to the site, starting at 1.30pm in Chater Garden, Central, with prizes for the best-decorated face masks.