The city's biggest annual children's festival will this summer have an opening act that has taken the government two years - and $1.1 million - to secure.
Nomade, an acrobatics show from Montreal's Cirque Eloize, will kick off the 480-event International Arts Carnival, which runs from July 8 to August 21.
Similar to Cirque du Soleil, in that the circus is made up entirely of acrobats, jugglers and aerialists, with no animals, the award-winning troupe has performed in more than 200 cities and 20 countries in North America and Europe in the past decade - but not in Asia.
Carnival organiser the Leisure and Cultural Services Department first invited the group in 2003 but that fell through because of Sars. Various attempts to secure the company followed, but to no avail.
'The troupe didn't want to come all the way here to perform for just one festival,' said the department's Festivals Office senior manager Elaine Yeung Chi-lan. 'Then there was the cost.'
Given the government cut the carnival budget by $2 million to $10 million this year, the act was becoming too expensive.
