Flight Festival held in shadow of Hong Kong airport to save dying Sha Lo Wan village
- Sha Lo Wan was a sleepy village in a peaceful location, until Hong Kong International Airport was built 200 metres away
- The UK’s Eden Project and Absolutely Fabulous Theatre Connection collaborated on a festival there
The emptying out of Sha Lo Wan began well before Hong Kong International Airport opened on its doorstep 20 years ago.
Descendants of farmers and fishermen moved away when industrialisation took off in the 1950s. In the 1960s, small-scale quartz mines in this part of northern Lantau Island ceased operation, further decimating a population that used to number well over 1,000. The constant roar of jet engines from the runway around 200 metres away literally sounded the death knell of the now 300-year-old village. And the noise will only get worse when the third runway gets built.
“The government thinks that the noise level makes Sha Lo Wan unfit for human habitation. It is very hard to get approval for new village houses or even the rebuilding of derelict properties,” says the village chief Carroll Li. Today, only around 50 people live there.
This somewhat dystopian setting is not where you’d expect to find an outdoor festival celebrating the arts, science and nature, and least of all, the involvement of the UK’s Eden Project – that vision of paradise in Cornwall best known for its giant, transparent domes housing the world’s biggest indoor forests.
But having Flight Festival in a place that is seemingly at the end of the road is part of a message of hope that the organisers want to inspire, says Lynn Yau, the indefatigable chief executive officer of Absolutely Fabulous Theatre Connection (Aftec).