Mong Kok buskers say thank you and good night
Some of street’s best-known names were out in force on Sunday night to mark the closure of iconic city pedestrian zone
“It’s been a very happy night for us,” said Steven Lai Cheuk-yin, who was performing on one of Hong Kong’s busiest shopping districts for the first and last time.
A few hours before the closure of the pedestrian zone along Mong Kok’s Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Lai helped a man propose to his girlfriend during his performance.
People scrambled to take selfies with the street’s best-known names, who were out in full force amid a carnival atmosphere.
The pavements were barely navigable and the noise was deafening. Police officers, uniformed and in plain clothes, stood on street corners. When the clock struck 10pm on Sunday, the road, which has been closed to traffic during specific periods of the week for 18 years, was returned around the clock to vehicles.
“We really wanted to just witness a chapter in history come to a close,” Lai said. “It’s a bit sad to see it end this way. But it all could have been avoided if performers practised some self-discipline and had respect for others. Everyone could have just turned the volume down a notch.”