Hong Kong bar owners wonder if crowds of rugby Sevens fans will ever return
- The sporting event was traditionally one of the busiest weekends of the year for bars in the city’s nightlife hotspots
- But with few international fans making the journey this year, owners are asking if the glory days are over
Thousands of fans headed to the Hong Kong Stadium on Saturday for the opening match of day two at 11am, cheering on the players as Ireland edged out Canada 19-17.
One group of Western spectators wore turquoise shirts designed to resemble the government’s “Leave Home Safe” risk-exposure app, which people must use to show they are vaccinated to enter most public places, including the stadium. But rather than a blue QR code indicating the user has been inoculated, their shirts showed a red one, used to bar entry.
The tournament was cancelled in 2020 and last year due to the coronavirus.
On Friday night, initially thin crowds grew slowly at bars in Wan Chai. But the scene was less boisterous compared with the pre-pandemic era, when fans would flock to bars and clubs in the area or simply crowd along roads outside convenience stores after spilling out of Hong Kong Stadium in Causeway Bay.
This year, more than 25,000 tickets were sold, but almost all of them went to local fans, while another 6,000 were given to schoolchildren and more than 1,000 to charities and NGOs.