The Amazing Carnival that was held at Admiralty's Tamar Site but closed suddenly in September, has gone bust again - this time in Shanghai. The closure of Wittingslow Entertainment's carnival on October 31 has again left students - hired to wear costumes, oversee rides and collect tickets - out of pocket. Hong Kong workers who travelled to Shanghai to set up the carnival have also been abandoned.
The carnival's bumper-car rides, roller coaster, ghost train and tents have been seized by its Shanghai partner, So Nai Ltd, in a dispute over contracts and payments after the poorly attended carnival closed four days early. The failure means about 100 Hong Kong students waiting for half their wages are now unlikely to be paid. Nor is Dale Rennie (above), who managed the carnival at Tamar. He says his former company - Entertainment Asia - is owed about HK$5 million by the carnival's owner Wittingslow Entertainment Propriety Limited (WEPL). Rennie told SAR: 'It's been a financial disaster. I never want to see another carnival.'
Michael Wittingslow, executive director of WEPL, said he was not able to comment on legal details. 'Everyone did their best but the market wasn't there,' he said. 'The Chinese don't understand what a carnival is.'
Entertainment Asia won a HK$5.5 million injunction against WEPL after the Tamar carnival folded, but had supported its move to Shanghai as the only realistic way to get back its cash. 'I was only a consultant on the Shanghai carnival,' said 37-year-old Rennie. 'I did go up there and it was dead. I guess the era of carnivals is over.'
