Fringe Evolution

Spotlight City (1999-2015)

Spotlight City has become the signature programme of the City Festival, and also a platform for cultural exchange for Hong Kong. Running for over 10 years, the following cities have been featured: San Francisco 1999, Melbourne 1999, Honolulu 2000, Bergen 2001, Vienna 2002, Seoul 2005, Singapore 2006, Ho Chi Minh City 2007, Kaiping 2009, Guangzhou 2010, Penang 2014 and Singapore 2015. Particularly, Spotlight Hong Kong, a broad-theme showcase of Hong Kong artists' works, has been spawned. So far it has toured in Seoul, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City and Penang.

At this stage of its evolvement, it has become clear to us that the City Festival can be cast in a mobile mode to become Spotlight City. Just as communication technologies have allowed us unprecedented mobility, a festival such as ours can be staged almost anywhere.

Once the logistics have been ironed out, there is no real site restriction. We could take to the road as troubadours or nomads did in olden days. They can move from one location to the next, creating theatres and art pieces of meaning, while putting up resistance to conformity.

Since 2011, our venue has been partially shut down for a major overhaul. Taking advantage of this, we have gone nomadic with programmes designed for touring. And we have brought shows to：Kaiping, Wuyi, Bangkok, Tokyo, Taipei, Seoul, Shanghai Expo, Jujiajiao , Venice Biennale and Taipei Hong Kong Week.