Protests can't scare off Halloween revellers

The spectre of Occupy Central loomed large last night as the city's drinking haunts welcomed the usual array of ghosts, ghouls and vampires on their busiest night of the year.

But for the protesters, Halloween was an opportunity to find creative ways to press their demands for democracy.

Bar bosses claimed 90,000 people would party in Lan Kwai Fong, making it anything but a ghost town and helping lift the gloom after a slide in sales.

But turnout was "largely the same as last year because of Occupy Central", said Tommy Fong Leung-shuen, director of the Lan Kwai Fong Association.

Halloween is the biggest night of the year in the Central nightlife hotspot - just 60,000 people come out for New Year's Eve.

Fong said his group's 108 members had seen sales slide by anything up to 30 per cent since September 28, when protesters blocked streets in Admiralty. Restaurants bore the brunt of the fall.

"A lot of people come to drink at 7-8pm because they find the MTR too crowded to go home - but for the restaurants, customers worry about transport and other stuff," he said.