Almost everybody has heard of Oktoberfest, the German celebration of beer and sausages. Well, Hong Kong has a similar event - JulyFest. Organised by the Lan Kwai Fong Association, the festival on July 30 will have street music, entertainment and more than 30 food and beverage booths.
The idea for JulyFest was first conceived about two years ago, says Allan Zeman, chairman of the association which represents more than 100 businesses in the area. The association has been holding successful street carnivals in October for the past three years so JulyFest seemed like a logical addition, says Zeman, whose company Lan Kwai Fong Enter-tainments has 15 restaurants in the area.
'Lan Kwai Fong is known for its food and beverage consumption, so we thought, 'Why not have an event in July?' It's busy then; students have come back for their summer holidays so there're a lot of young people hanging out. We talked about it with members of the association and a new baby was born.'
JulyFest - officially the Lan Kwai Fong Beer and Food Festival - was first held last year. 'It was kind of an experiment,' says Zeman. The district has an official beer sponsor each year, and last year it was Carlsberg. 'We were bound to honour the contract with them which meant we couldn't feature a lot of beers during the festival. But you can't have a beer festival with just one beer.' So the association came to an agreement with the Carlsberg - although the brewer will remain the official beer sponsor for Lan Kwai Fong, the district could have other beers in the festival.
This JulyFest, he says, there will be more than 20 sponsored beers, encompassing more than 100 varieties. They include the usual (Carlsberg, Foster's and Asahi) and lesser known beers such as Edelweiss (from Austria), Beamish (from Ireland) and even a Lan Kwai Fong Beer.
Despite a limited range of beers last year, it still drew more than 10,000 people, says Stella Luk, the association's director.
'It was done on a smaller scale last year,' she says. 'We didn't have as much sponsorship, we didn't have the resources and we didn't have as much time to plan it. This year, we have the resources to make it bigger and better. We've doubled the number of booths, more than tripled the number of beers, and we have non-stop entertainment.'
