Cultural Beat Drone Show, 1 May 2025

The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) launched a new seasonal thematic promotion Hong Kong Cultural Beat with a drone show over Victoria Harbour on 1 May.

Themed around Hong Kong’s cultural festivals—the Tin Hau Festival, the Tam Kung Festival, and the iconic Cheung Chau Bun Festival—the 12-minute show featured a fleet of 1,000 drones. And while beautiful, if we’re being honest, the drone show sadly paled in comparison to some recent ones seen north of the border.

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image: HK Tourism

M2M Live @ Queen Elizabeth Stadium – 29 April, 2025

The enduring love and popularity of live music was on full display last night at Queen Elizabeth Stadium as many of the predominantly female audience for Norwegian duo M2M‘s concert were younger than 25… ie born after the duo’s albums were released and the songs first became hits.

Truth be said it didn’t feel like 25 years ago that we were first listening to Don’t Say You Love Me, Everything You DoPretty Boy, Mirror, Mirror… the songs sounded as fresh today as they did when first released – perhaps it was just me who felt a tad ‘old’ when Marion and Marit were talking about how long ago the songs were released.

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It was fun to hear the hits live, but perhaps the most emotional part of the concert was to hear Marion sing It’s All Coming Back to Me Now – her duet with Meatloaf. There’s a great live version of Meatloaf singing and chatting with the audience and recounting a story about him and Marion (can’t find a link, but here’s a link to the music video). Great to hear the other side.

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Set list:

The Day You Went Away
Everything You Do
The Minute
I Don’t Wanna Talk About It
Love Left For Me
Pretty Boy
Here I Am
Don’t
Under The Surface
If A Song
What You Do About Me
Driving
Don’t Save Me
It’s All Coming Back To Me Now
Mirror Mirror
Everything
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Don’t Mess With My Love
Don’t Say You Love Me

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M2M – The Better Endings Tour
Date: 8pm, 29 April 2025
Venue: Queen Elizabeth Stadium
Tickets: $2,088, $1,288, $888, $688 from Urbtix

Chinese New Year Night Parade 2025

The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) annual Chinese New Year Night Parade lit up the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui to celebrate the first day of the Year of the Snake.

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The, Unfold a Year of Good Fortune, themed parade featured nine floats and 46 performing groups representing 14 countries: including K-pop girl band, Kep1er, and Thai boyband, LYKN.

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Find out more events to celebrate the start of the Year of the Snake at the HKTB Guide to Chinese New Year in Hong Kong website.

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International Chinese New Year Night Parade 2025
Date: 8pm, 29 January, 2025
Venue: Tsim Sha Tsui
Tickets: Free

Cage and Coffin Homes in Twenty Twenty-four

A recently published video by YouTuber Drew Binsky reminds the world of Hong Kong’s cage and coffin homes.

The video also captures the unique spirit and generosity of HongKongers and it’s that, that makes Hong Kong such a wonderful place.

Regrettably, the government’s planned new legislation only covers sub-divided flats – not cage or coffin homes.

 

8 Years Ago Today… Joseph Lau Spoke About Love

Even for Hong Kong, buying a newspaper’s front page to tell the world about your love life is a bit extreme. But 8 years ago Joseph Lau, Leun-hung did exactly that.

The advert was a blunt and informative response to tabloid speculation about the status of his relationship with Lui Lai-kwan.

Oh did local tongues wag…

Grand Opening @ King Ludwig am Meer, Soho West – 10 November, 2024

The King Parrot Group celebrated the opening of their latest restaurant King Ludwig am Meer in Soho West with a party on 10 November, 2024.

Okay, I know many of you will go ‘Soho West!’ Well, think of Sai Wan Ho’s Soho East in the West. It’s a short walk from Nam Cheong MTR, and while it is all high-rise concrete and glass…  The waterfront promenade is pet friendly, faces west to catch the sunset, and even boasts a view of Hong Kong Island. You can also, sort of, walk along the water’s edge all the way to West Kowloon and thence to TST and the Star Ferry.

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All in all, in a very manufactured way, it is rather a nice place to grab some fresh air – especially now you can enjoy a cold beer at King Ludwig and sit outside!

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All images copyright bc magazine/ Simon Durrant – all rights reserved

USMEF Oktoberfest in Central Market – 29 October, 2024

Oktoberfest is one of those fun festivals that has been adopted globally. And just as Songkran encourages us to soak others in water, Oktoberfest is an ‘excuse’ for people around the world to have fun and dance on the table…

The US Meat Export Federation hosted a night at Oktoberfest in Central Market on 29 October. The open centre of the market has been converted into a Hong Kong style German Beer Hall including a stage where traditional German music from the Notenhobler’s sets the mood.

There’s a range of traditional German dishes: pork knuckle, pretzels, sauerkraut, apple strudel and some delicious US pork ribs.

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After dinner, while enjoying your beer, you can blow the big horn and start the party with some fun games.

 

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All images copyright bc magazine/ Simon Durrant – all rights reserved