Hong Kong’s IRIS fitness festival’s media day drew more than 100 people who came to work out in socially distanced pods on Thursday, previewing one of the largest events that will take place in the city in months. Held beneath the Observational Wheel on the Central harbourfront, fitness fans worked out to local instructors in 110 two-person pods spaced 1.5 metres apart. The Grounds at AIA Vitality Park, which is billed as Hong Kong’s first “socially distanced entertainment space”, features a giant LED screen and 2.5m by 2.5m picket fence pods. It will be hosting events regularly until at least the end of November. More than 80 pods were booked for the media day. IRIS founder Charlz Ng said part of putting on the festival, which was first held in 2014, is to show people that large-scale events can be held during the pandemic, if they are done right. “It will become normal again, it will one day,” said Ng. “We want to be able to show, and make a statement, that we can get together, work out together, have fun and be safe.” Ng said they reached out to organisers of The Grounds in October, given IRIS was at that point dead in the water for 2020 as an in-person event and was potentially going to be online. The festival will take place over three days from November 27-29 and features yoga, dance, cardio and Pilates. Tickets can be bought for individual days, or all three. “Everyone clearly has the appetite to go out again,” said Ng. “We believe in the merits of physical events, everyone is going virtual and that may work for the corporate world, but there are always going to be people who want to go out and do things like this.” Ng said the scaled down version will be broken up into smaller blocks each day and safety measures are in place, including mandatory health and declaration forms, temperature checks upon arrival and the requirement of mask wearing when participants are not working out. He said the sight of more than 100 people at the media day event alone is a clear sign people want to return to their normal lives. “People haven’t given up on doing things like this and they never will,” Ng said. From Bollywood dance to dog yoga – Iris: Your Escape festival wrap The media day drew a number of high-profile fitness industry players, including Hong Kong’s Jen MacKay, a former national team rugby player and bikini model competitor, who now works at The Gym in Central as a personal trainer. MacKay said IRIS taking place in 2020 and the sign-up for media day alone is an indicator that people are hungry for events like this. “It’s a different normal and we just have to surrender to that,” said Mackay, who has worked in the industry in some form since 2009. “So we kind of have to just change with it for now, and if it changes again, we take it for what it is.” Hong Kong has endured strict restrictions for months on end , which at one point in July saw the second closure of all of the city’s gyms, studios, recreational facilities, pools, beaches and outdoor exercise equipment. At one point, Hongkongers were even required to wear a mask outdoors while working out. Since the reopening of gyms in September, many fitness industry players have pleaded with the government not to close them down again if the city experiences another wave of cases. Many of them, who haven’t already, will go bankrupt, they say. Sit Ka-yan, who has run a yoga studio called C. For Studio in Prince Edward since 2018 and has been teaching yoga since 2015, said they were grateful for the government subsidy. Some fitness outlets received a one-off cash injection of HK$100,000 and then another one of HK$50,000 in October, but many boutique shops said they were not eligible for either grant for various reasons. Sit said they have resumed to somewhat of a normal schedule of classes, but were still reeling from two separate shutdowns, one in April and one in July. “The first lockdown was quite unexpected,” she said. “And we were quite panicked to try to find a way to adapt to the new normal.” Sit added the fitness industry understands the rules are different now during the coronavirus, but people still want to work out, stay in shape and remain healthy. She said being a small studio allowed them to weather the storm financially. “Things are starting to get normal again, people need things like [IRIS]. This is the new normal, whatever it is, and we need to move forward.” One of Hong Kong’s most recognisable fitness instructors is Nike masters trainer Utah Lee , who has been working in the industry for 20 years. She said IRIS and the 100 plus people who showed up on Thursday alone shows Hongkongers want and need events like this. “We’re following the rules, with social distancing and the masks, but we still want to bring people together, and get the vibe back up, and the energy back up. It has been too long, we’ve had enough, we need to come out and do things again.”