It was a first on the last night for the Hong Kong Philharmonic as the city's premier orchestra donned shirt sleeves after an air-conditioning breakdown at the Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Although the day-long malfunction was fixed just before the final concert of the season, things weren't quite fully operational. Nearly 2,000 overheated concert-goers fanned themselves and Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski sweated through Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 1.
'It was certainly very stuffy and they employed electric fans to cool things down. It's the first time I have seen the Phil perform in their shirt sleeves,' said South China Morning Post arts editor Kevin Kwong.
A problem with a sea water pump left the Cultural Centre, Space Museum and Museum of Art without air conditioning for much of yesterday as temperatures climbed to 33.5 degrees Celsius.
The Space Museum closed its theatre and the Museum of Art also closed all but one of its exhibition galleries.
Bookings for rehearsal and practice rooms at the Cultural Centre were cancelled.
