ENG-1974 — Page 241

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RECREATION

the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, the Association of Volunteers for Service and major government departments concerned with youth recreation.

A grant of $1.4 million from the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club and a similar amount contributed by the government, together with numerous donations from com- munity groups and private individuals helped to provide a varied and extensive pro- gramme of events.

Entertainment and the Arts

The cultural life of Hong Kong in which the performing arts now play an import- ant role, tends to centre on the City Hall, which is administered by the Urban Council.

Facilities offered by the City Hall, opened in 1962, include a 1,500-seat concert hall that can be quickly converted for use for theatrical productions, an intimate 470-seat theatre (also used as a cinema), two exhibition halls, rooms for lectures and conferences, and two public restaurants with bars. The City Museum and Art Gallery and the main branch of the Urban Council public libraries system are also located there.

Local performers and overseas artists appear regularly in the two auditoria and the demand for use of the City Hall facilities is far greater than can be met. Planning of a new and larger cultural complex in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, is now underway.

Of performances by local artists during the year, 113 Chinese and Western music, drama, opera and dance were presented by the Urban Council, and attended by 72,870 people.

The Urban Council, mostly in association with national cultural organisations such as the Alliance Francaise, the British Council, the American Library and the Goethe Institute, also engaged overseas artists to perform music, ballet and drama. In 1974, there were 75 such performances. Admission prices for students for these performances ranged from $2 to $5, and tickets were usually sold out quickly.

In addition to participating in the Urban Council's presentations, local musical groups and soloists gave 69 concerts in the City Hall during the year. In drama, many Chinese groups, amateur as well as professional, and three active English ama- teur groups presented 34 productions, with 100 performances in the City Hall. The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra turned professional in January and gave 70 concerts during the year.

The 1974 Hong Kong Arts Festival, organised by the Hong Kong Arts Festival Society, took place at the City Hall and the Lee Theatre in February. Internationally known artists who performed at the festival included soloists Shura Cherkassky, Fou Ts'ong, Paul Tortelier, Yi-kwei Sze and Robert Tear, Hiroyuki Iwaki and Sergiu Commissiona conducting the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Erich Bergel, Walter Weller and Bernard Klee conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. Also perform- ing at the festival were the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and Choir, the Allegri Quartet, the Prospect Theatre, the Birmingham Repertory and the Senegal Dancers. They gave Hong Kong a month of music, drama and dance.