| - first concert had terrrible crowd control- stage diagram misleading (I bought seats on side for one concert and could not see all performers - for a $788 ticket!); should have wider stage or open sides; or narrower venue- generally very disorganized |
| - Concert never start on time- A waste of time to have to sit around for an hour between the local performers and the international- Event should be organized by private company with the support of the government- Even if it's organized and subsidized by |
| - Media is too negative in reporting news, i.e. not a balanced view.- the show is an international musical events to HK and enrich the multi-cultural activities in HK (being an international city). |
| - should do less shows;- more local advertisements on performance schedules;- more introduction on each performer;- the cheap ticket seatings are too far away from the stage- |
| (i) Brilliant idea to have open show near Victoria Harbour.(ii) Good Performers.(iii) Worst Organisers I've ever seen.The Government has wrongly trusted the American Chamber of Commerce. The ACC should be responsible for the whole event. |
| (i)The arrangement of a single funnel for audience entrance into the concert for the performance by Charlotte Church and Jose Carreras was grossly inefficient which grossly prolonged entrance time and delayed, thus also disturbed, the concert.(ii) The screens for the above performance were too small. there should be a central large screen like the one for the Rolling Stone.(iii) There was no screen images for the performance at 7:00pm prior to the performance of the Rolling Stone. |
| **UP TO ONE HOUR WASTED CHANGING SOUND SYSTEM BETWEEN ACTS (IN 3 CONCERTS SO FAR) - THIS IS DEPLORABLE, AN INSULT TO TICKET BUYERS**WARM UP ACTS UNNECESSARY - DIFFERENT AUDIENCE PROFILE TO INTERNATIONAL ACTS - WASTED TIME BETWEEN ACTS - SOUND SYSTEM FOR LOCAL ACTS WAS CONSISTENTLY POOR SO COMPOUNDED THE PROBLEM**NEGATIVE, WHINGING, COMPLAINING RECRIMINATIONS AND CRITICISM IN THE PAPERS AND ON THE RADIO HAVE REDUCED THIS VERY GOOD IDEA TO A FIASCO**ROCK ACTS ARE HARDLY LIKELY, IN THEMSELVES, TO ATTRACT OVERSEAS VISITORS TO HK - NOW OVERSEAS OBSERVERS WILL BE AMAZED AT THE APPARENT INEPTITUDE OF HK SPOKES-PERSONS- SHOOTING THEMSELVES IN THE FOOT WITH SELF CRITICISM**I HAVE THOROUGHLY ENJOYED THE ARTISTS THAT I WENT TO SEE - PRINCE, SANTANA & NEIL YOUNG - NOW LOOKING FORWARD TO THE ROLLING STONES**I AM VERY SORRY THAT SOME HAVE FOUND IT FIT TO MOAN AND COMPLAIN - THIS HAS SOURED THE WHOLE EVENT FOR ME**TICKETS TOO EXPENSIVE FOR MOST OF MY JUNIOR COLLEAGUES IN THIS TIME OF PAY CUTS AND JOB UNCERTAINTY - PEOPLE IRRITATED THAT FAVOURED PERSONS RECEIVE FREE TICKETS (HOW COULD I HAVE GOT ONE OR TWO?)**OVERALL, A VERY GOOD IDEA, WELL PERFORMED BY ALL ARTISTS, BUT MANY PLANNING ERRORS, AND SPOILED BY TOO MUCH CRITICISM |
| 「維港巨星匯」可由商業市場舉辦，不用政府包底 |
| 「維港巨星匯」是香港一大盛事，雖然宣傳不足，但作為香港人很應該大力支持，非常不滿傳媒每天作負面的評論，令盛事變作醜聞，實在令人遺憾！ |
| 1) I only realised the show time for Nov 9 show has changed from 8pm to 7pm last evening and I doubt if there's enough communication to announce the same as it created a mess when I just realised the same at 6:40pm when I saw the evening news. There are 5 of us going to the show and none of us realised the change and this just messed up our plans totally.2) Our local media scene played a great part to publicize all the negative criticism for the event and I think this does affect the passion for those who plan to go (even ffor those who may plan to come elsewhere/ outside HK) 3) The Rolling Stones issue remains a mystery and while I think the band should assume some responsibility for not confirming earlier, the handling of the organizing team I think could be better to avoid such embarrassing situation arises.4) The venue and the sound system are fabulous. I'm a tourist coming all the way here to enjoy the show, I think it's certainly impressive. The timing is just perfect for a open-air event. |
| 1) I personally feel the ticket prices are too expensive, hence not too many people can afford.2) I've seen many concerts of famous international singers before. The organisers were very successful in promoting them and the ticket prices were a lot cheaper. The performances were equally good compared to HarbourFest. I think the government had spent too much money, but not achieving the best results. It's not worth! A lot of tax-payers' money was wasted.3) The publicity/advertisement of this HarbourFest event is too little. The organiser should have widely promoted this event months ago (e.g. giving details of singers, date of performance, etc.) over the radio, TV, newspapers, flyers, bulletins in order to gauge wider audience. 4) I've seen 3 shows already (one of which is complimentary) and will be seeing Rolling Stones on coming Sunday. All shows were fantastic, good weather, good atmosphere. It's a pity that that not all seats were occupied. Actually it's a blemish to the image of HK that international singers cannot attract full house of audience.5) I strongly agree that Jim Thompson should be investigated by the ICAC for his involvement with a scandal for having conflict of interests with his own company's accounts.6) I hope more HarbourFest shows will be organised in the future at lower cost, and hopefully the ticket prices will be a lot cheaper so that not only the rich people can enjoy, but also the poorer.7) I strongly oppose to the way of distributing free tickets to the public. It has caused a lot of chaos.8) I don't like the idea of mixing local and international singers in one show. |
| 1) Poorly advertised.2) Local/Asian artists have been dreadful.3) Prince and Santana were sensational. A great pity no-one knew about the Prince concert.4) The centre of the stadium should be standing room only for the people who want to dance! The sloping seats at the sides should be seating for people who'd rather not dance!5) Very poorly advertised - seemed very last minute. I heard a rumour about Prince being in town two days before he played!!6) This event should have been organised by an international music events organiser - Hong Kong rarely holds pop concerts so it's no wonder they didn't have a clue about holding one!7) Location, transport, exits, security etc. were excellent.8) Hong Kong should have regular pop concerts with excellent artists (i.e. Americans and British bands).9) I'm a big fan of live concerts and felt I could have organised this event 100% better!!!10) It's about time Hong Kong encouraged cultural events. |
| 1) Some performers - e.g. Joey Yung - were 'miming" , not singing 'live', and also used pre-recorded music to perform to instead of live musicians. This is not only cheating the fans, it is also illegal in all other countries i have been to (& can result in a custodial sentence, as in the case of "Milkli Vanilli" the managers of "New Kids On The Block" and so on.) it is also forbidden by Ameican Federation of Musicians, UK Musician's Union etc,. for any other performers to appear on the same bill (or at the same venue) as anyone 'cheating' by miming, using pre-recorded music & so on.If Hong Kong is truly aiming to be an "international City" we should rigorously enforce these standards on our local talent too, and not let visitors from around the world see them 'cheating' by using what they refer to as 'music & mime' - I seriously think they should be severely punished for this!2) The bass sound was very muddy & distorted for all acts at the concerts I saw. |
| 1) The relatively expensive front row seats on the sides were hopeless for viewing anything except the speaker boxes2) The limited beer stalls meant a long wait..20 minutes for one beer3) Too many events, too close together that we would like to have seen but it was just too expensive to see them..and they won't be back in a hurry |
| 1) The seats are far too close to each other. Not enough space to move around while sitting down (or standing up) without accidentally (slightly) bumping the person next to me (left and right especially and in front as well) during the performance.2) During the performance, when one person decides to stand up in front of me, he/she will affect my view to the stage (including those behind me) giving us no choice but to stand as well if we want to continue seeing the stage unobstuctedly. Maybe some consideration ought to be put into this kind of circumstance.3) Luckily it didn't rain during the performance. How about if it did? Should it be my total responsibility to look after myself by bringing my own umbrella for this particular circumstance? If so, please state it simply, briefly but clearly on the ticket to remind me to bring my umbrella "for just in case". At least I would be psychologically and materialistically prepared for it instead of arriving at the venue half-expecting that something would be done for me and the audience should there be a sudden downpour. |
| 1) 門票價格如能稍為調低比較好，可讓更多愛好音樂人士入場觀 賞。2) 多邀請一些香港及外地樂迷熟悉的樂隊及歌手來港演出，例如： Paul Mccartney、Eagles、Bee Gees、Elton John等。 |
| 1)i hope more local audience can mix with westerners so that there would be more social interaction.2)The last time i sat as the tamar audience was on July ist,l997 handover ceremony. i have never dreamt that the second time i came here as as audience was attending the rolling stone concert.this is a great + after the handover. i hope hk's tomorrow will be brighter. after all, tung's govt is improving.in addition, i went to taipo waterfront park last week, it is a great establishment.this is also a plus to tung's government.hk is getting better than i have ever thought after the handover. |
| 1. Excellent venue/stage and sound2. Miles better than attending any event previously held at HK Convention Centre3. Timing could have been better : suggest that its not held over School Holidays when a lot of families may be away |
| 1. I brought the $758 ticket for the Prince show on the afternoon of the event date because staff at the Tom Lee ticketing counter said the ticketing system did not allow her to take up ticket of lower price. I was really upset to learn from press after the show that AmCham give away large amount of tickets. I feel that my right as a consumer (to select ticket of different prices) was completely taken away. 2. It is very unprofessional to present artists from different music genre, this will only affect sales of tickets.3. Hope that this is the very last event sponsored by HK government 'cause it is totally a waste of taxpayer's money. |
| 1. Should have been held sooner after SARS ended.2. Should be set up as a benefit, not at taxpayer expense. If it is done at taxpayer expense, tickets should be cheaper to allow more people to participate.3. The organizers should be companies experinced in concert/entertainment promotion, but AmCham is to be congratulated for taking the initiative to do something.4. HK needs an outdoor music venue that international acts can use on a regular basis. Why not HK Stadium? If horseracing at H. Valley can disrupt tarffic 2x a week, why a not a little noise once in awhile at HK stadium?5. The festival should have been promoted more internationally to attract vistors. 6. The TAMAR site was a nice venue for a concert. Very convenient and pleasant.7. However, the logic behind the fund to "relaunch" HK is naive. Why isn't the money being spenty on more tangible benefits like improving the health system (given the possibility of a 2d SARS outbreak) or scholarships for university students?7. Whoever organizes the event, it should be transparent: there are potentail conflicts of interest where an entertainment comapany is involved in promoting an entertainment eventslike this.8. Soemone should also look at why the SCMP was so negative about the event. Did they have an interest in helping someone who wasn't participating? |
| 1. The govt should increase support for the HK Arts Festival which is already an experienced going concern, already brings world-class acts to Hong Kong and provides local and foreign acts with excellent facilities. 2. HarbourFest was conceived in haste and in the depths of SARS despondency. It lost its reason for being even before the first artists were announced since HK was rebounding unexpectedly well DESPITE the govt's best efforts. The govt (especially Mike Rowse) should keep out of things like this.3. AmCham should also have listened to its friends who said this was not necessary and was quite outside its real role in HK, even though it was with the best intentions.4. The govt lied, or was stunningly ill-informed, when it said HBrFest wld bring hordes of tourists to HK. It is, and was always conceived as, a massive PR gesture, with millions of HK dollars splurged on friends of AmCham. This is what leaves the foul taste in the mouth that prevents me and my friends from heaping praise on the effort. Jim Thompson gave the game away when he handed the filming task to US firms without even asking HK production houses if they cd do it - and then said the world's 2nd/3rd-biggest movie industry was not competent. This was stupid and insulting and another reason for AmCham to stay out it. What else did the govt give away without telling us? |
| 1. Ticketing is a farce. Tickets should be sold on a first-come first served basis at a single fixed price. First to buy get the better seats etc etc. This saves the problem on people that buy tickets, even at the cheapest price, but getting worse seats than those given free seats by organisers. This also solves the problem of people with expensive seats getting angry others stand in front of them or move to front of stage. This also allows for the real fans, rather than the rich ones that can afford $2000 the better views.2. Acts. More forethought needs to be given. While there was a good spread of acts, more current performers should ge added to the playlist.3. Over security. Hong Kong is the only place in the world where it is difficult to get into an event.4. Should be allowed to dance, stand on seats, move to front of stage etc. Crowd atmospheres add to a concert's success. |
| 1. Warm up performance started to early, 7:15pm. 2. There was also no big screens working on the opening performance which made the show not enjoyable to the main croud. You could improve in this aspect.3. There was a big confusion with the starting time of the concert, many people was very angry because the organizers decided to have in the newspaper a last minute notice, one day before, that the concert will start 7pm and not 8pm as initially confirmed.5. Toilets could be more clean |
| 1. 千萬不可本地及國際表演者同台演出2. 應給本港私營的專業機構舉辦, 政府不應與民爭利, 倒市民米.3. 政府不應包底, 亂花錢, 敗家! |
| 1. 宣傳不足, 表演單位每每突然加入但缺乏宣傳和通知 2. 如同場有多過一個表演單位, 則沒有通知觀眾有關出場的次序, 令部份不欲觀看另一個單位表演的觀眾未能按自己的喜好安排時間 3. 保安安排日日新鮮次次不同 4. 容許\零售商將啤酒除以杯裝售賣外還以酌裝出售, 觀眾經常將容器放在地上, 或出入需要非常小心 5. |
| 1.AmCham should be lauded for at least trying to do something upbeat. 2.Govt behaved incompetently as usual, and should not have agreed to subsidise losses. 3.M Rowse should stay out of the press/media, where he inevitably appears squirmy and slippery, dragging the whole event down. 4.Many concerts escaped my notice until it was too late to buy tickets. Poor publicity? |
| 1.快炒了盧維思, 2.再搞搵行內人 3.搞得太密,本來想睇多兩場, 因時間太促及budget不能做到 4.以show計三場水準都好高, 略嫌國際表演單位不夠後生 |
| 1/more openess with the allocation of the organisation.2/Organisation should be with recognised Promotion companies not Chambers of Commerce with no exoerience.3/More time neccessary for organising concerts and possibly over longer period of time, to give local Hong Kong residents the opportunity to be able to afford to go to more concerts.4/ Venue and facilities are excellent |
| 1/廁所不足夠.2/完全不知道怎樣購票.3/對亞州歌手同場演出是一種侮辱.因為在場之外國人對亞州歌手不尊重.4/不要讓小童入場,因有三級之情節. |
| A constant stream of late arrivals during the warmup band and coming and going during the main band totally blocked my view (Yes, I can still the large screen but I came to see the performer in person not on TV). To see I had to stand on my chair. Late arrivals should only be allowed during appropriate breaks in the performance (as happens at City Hall concerts). Or walkways to access seating could be lower level than level of seats. |
| A excellent idea and the event should be arranged annually. |
| A wonderful idea, I have nothing but praise for the organizers of the event and wish there were a more positive attitude generally to this marvellous event. |
| About the show of Michelle Branch and Neil Young, Michelle only performed about 45mins but Neil Young with about 120 mins. It was not fair as I wanted to watch Michelle only. Hope can have share the performance time more fair next time. And the sound effect of Michelle Branch was poorer then Neil Young. The ticket price is also quite expensive. |
| Access to the MTR after the concert was inadaquate. Too difficult to squeeze into one door to access stairs to the flyover. |
| Advertising in the early stages could have been better. I find it hard to understand all the bad press and why the press were so anti the whole thing. The venue was great and the sound was so much better than pop concerts I have seen at the convention centre. I would think an annual event of the nature would be too much but certainly from time to time. |
| Advertising was not soon enough. |
| After attending the first and last concert, the improvement in security was evident at the last concert. The venue is ideal and should be a permanent fixture for future concerts to lure more international and local acts. Congratualtions on a job well done. |
| After the concerts, I have a dream.....maybe we can have a free concert like Simon & Carfunkel in Central Park, New York City with 500,000 people together. First of all , we must have good sound system. I have been to many local concerts in HK Coliseum, HK Exhib. Centre in Wanchai and Admiralty as well. We just cannot listen to the music and vocal voice together in my past experience. But , I can listen both so well and clear this time. It's time to teach HK people to listen to the music with their ears, not with their eyes , especially for the young generation. How can we have Twins to be on the stage if they cannot sing? Is that what we can show to the world? We do have good pop singers like Sam Hui , Alan Tam , George Lam , Jacky Cheung.....who had been so popular in Chinese society in Asia. We definitely will draw a lot of attention of Asian tourist and those from China . |
| All was good, however, the choice of artists was not necessarily appealing to a HK audience - some of the more famous local artists could have been added to improve the profitability |
| Allowing the rank amateurs at AmCham to attempt the organisation of an event which required exceptional professional skills and experience was always going to cause problems and controversy, which has been well documented in the press.Any repeat, which I would love to see, should be left entirely to professional promotors to organise. |
| Although I pay $1988, but unable to get the good seats, not fair! |
| Although I sit on the first row, somebody still board my view. Why ? Why do I need to stand in the whole concert ? |
| Arrangement not best, not good with seats when noone use themSanitary arrangements very poor considering beer was sold at the venue.Security not well organised, people standing in walkways etcBand - OK |
| Arrangements of seating. The front row people stood on seats, so everyone had to stand on seats to watch. Quite tiring and painful. Over all quite good, but then again, any monkey with $100,000,000 of someone elses money can do this. |
| At first I thought why should we spend so much money to contract international singers to host the shows. After tonight, seeing the enthusiastic reaction of foreign visitors or residents in Hong KOng, I believe we should have world class singers / bands to run these shows in order to make HK a real international city. |
| At the Santana concert, those without good seats were allowed to stand in the aisle along a rail, which blocked our view. I asked several ushers about this but they ignored me or asked to see my ticket.But overall I thought any problems with the concerts were simply from the lack of experience. They seemed better organized at later concerts. |
| BAD promotion No Local Advertising. Goverment Spend too much Money. Security a joke. Seats should be more elevated on the floor. Too big gap in ticket price. Let promotors bring 1 performer each. More Local Advertising. |
| Bad seating plan organisation, too narrow and dangerous when people walk around with jugs of bear. Also no good to allow audience standing inside the sitting area... blocking other's view and real difficult for security to control the situation. Too noisy working environment for securities etc.. |
| bad selection of performers for both the local and international audiences. |
| Based on my experience in the 3 concerts, the audience is basically non-Hong Kong people. They were very excited in the concert and showed very good response. If the aim of the event is to attract foreigners/to promote HK's image as an international image, I think the event is very successful. If the event is primarily for the HK people, the event may not fit their taste. But for me, in fact I do not know much about the singers who performed in the 3 concerts I attended, but I think it is a good idea to try to have some new experience. I have no comment whether the HK Harbour Fest worths $100m but I pay sympathy to the organizers who have faced a lot of criticisms. It is not fair to them as a lot of people criticize without actually attending or participating in any one of the concerts. I think there are merits in organizing the event and the organizer deserve some encouragement. Perhaps, if there is going to be another HK Harbour Fest in the coming year, there is a need to set clearly the aim and target of the event and also important, improvement in the promotion of the event. |
| Beer & toilet queues were far too long. |
| Better name entertainment than example Neil Young. Larger spacing of seats |
| better organising such as allowing at least a year to six months for promotions and advertising. should involve airlines, travel agents, local entertainment organisations. |
| better organising. plan a year to half year in advance to promote and advertise overseas and locally like the annual art festival.should have some free shows for the underprivileged, handicaps, elderlies. |
| Better promotion should be done, months ago the event (about 5-6 months ago) to attract tourists of other Asia Pacific countries, such as Japanese, who have high spending power, and like Western-style concerts (I saw about 2 dozens of Japanese tourists in the concert). Also, many locals CLAIM they are not aware of the concerts.It would be best if only 4 very high profile singers / bands perform consecutively for 4 Saturdays from mid-October to mid-November. In between, HK singers can use the stage for their own concerts. If local and international singers are not singing together, just don't mix them together. |
| Better signage from MTR to venueBetter toiletsMore beer stalls - some people queued for an HOUR to get a drink!Cheaper tickets to ensure better attendance.Better advertitising needed - you had to search out the info. |
| Both concerts I visited were predominantly attended by non-chinese. Considering HK is 98% chinese population, this is pretty poor. Furthermore, neither concert was a sell-out. I suggest closer market research, in colaboration with, say HMV, to ascertain exactly which artists (international and local) are most popular with residents and book accordingly. Failing that, lower the prices, so that the concerts are actually sold out! |
| Both the Gypsy Kings and Carlos Santana gave sublime performances, very impressive. In spite of all the energy and hype, the Stones' performance was perhaps a bit pedestrian, not as good as I had hoped, maybe I was expecting too much. |
| brilliant site advertising could be better |
| Bring on a more professional organisation - I.E. leave it to the local music/promotions industry, but support them financially. Keep the government interference to a minimum, and avoid it becoming a political football. Regretfully a well intended Idea, was squandered by too many 'buddies' slapping eachothers back, from the outset. |
| Cheaper tickets and broader bill, including more than one star in each show - for eg Craig David and Prince in one show... |
| Chinese and Western performers appeal to completely different audiences - not compatible.All seats on the ground should be removed - standing room only with one ticket price. Those arriving first get to stand at the front, latecomers at the back. This practice is used in stadiums throughout the world and works well - why should HK be any different. (In HK, VIPs arrive late keeping everyone else waiting and then get to sit at the front - typical HK.) Everyone wants to stand and move to the music, chairs get in the way! Why would anyone want to sit?Too many concerts in too short a time. We're supposed to be recovering from an economic downturn and yet the Govt expects us to pay expensive prices for many concerts in the space of a few weeks.It's a disgrace that a city like HK doesn't have a permanent stadium that can be used for concerts like this.Next time let the professional concert promoters organise the thing. Typical HK Govt style - always think they know best and ignore expert advice. |
| Come to the show and make your own judgement, I am very satisfied, I just don't get it why the local media keep telling different stories |
| Concerts too close together make it very expensive and hence cannot see all shows that we would like toHK Ticketing internet allocation of seat locations is terrible..pay lots for bad seating positions relative to stage eg acute viewing anglesPoor promotionPoor sign posting to get to venue eg from MTRCost is very high given the fest is subsidised ie last year same price for rolling stones tickets before sars and not sponsored then (who pockets the money subsidised?) |
| Crowd control very poor, unnecessarily long walk around to get in nearly everytime.Promotion is not done badly. It should have been like the Art Festival where there are plenty of sponsors and overseas visitors.Planning for weather?? We have been lucky, but what if??delement |
| Didn't achieve goal because of myriad negative issues on the run up to the Harbourfest - gave world the impression of a comedy show. Management of such an event should be handled by industry professionals, amateurs should not be given carte blanche with government money. Fantastic venue and world class acts - show's that HK can become a top venue for culture. Now....city should provide facilitation support for the professionals to make that happen. |
| Disgraceful food and beverage sales system/facilities |
| do not like the negative attitude that is surrounding it |
| Do not suggest to involve local singers in future. Local singers' standards may not be up to international standard. It creates embarrassment to the local singers. |
| Drinks sale/toilet facilities not well run - queues were far too long would have made much more money on drinks if it had been more organisedpromotion was appalling - must be only place in the world which couldn't fill such a small venue when the rolling stones were playing |
| During the Stones concert on 7 Nov, the security guards were bothering the audience to a very great extent, not allowing us even to stand a tiny bit on the aisle. It spoilt a lot of our fun. It wasn't like that in the Prince or Neil Young concerts. Actually, I have travelled to many countries to see concerts, including Taiwan, China, Singapore, Japan, England, France, Greece, Germany, and the USA, audiences could stand in the aisle to sing and dance in rock concerts, except Japan where the audience are quite 'docile'. But even in Japan, the security guards would not bother the audience that much for dancing on the aisle. The case in the Rolling Stones concert here in HK is absolutely ridiculous. (Actually, I have seen the Stones in Tokyo and Athens before, and the mood was much better with the crowd dancing and singing all over the place.)The mood and atmosphere was much better in the Prince concert where members of the audience were allowed to sing and dance where ever they want as long as they stayed in their section.I paid almost $2,000 for the concert, and I should be entitled to, at least, a concert without being hassled by the security guards. We were not doing anything wrong except stepping out in the aisle by 6 inches. The guards were being too harsh, and it spoiled the fun to a huge extent. There is no concert culture in HK. I have seen more than 100 rock concerts all over the world in the past 25 years, there has never been such stupid and uncivilised things like that of the Rolling Stones in HK on 7 Nov 2003. And on top of that, that is the most expensive concert ticket I've ever bought. It was around HK$600 for the Stones concert in Japan (10,000 yen), and around HK$400 for that one in Athens. And since I have bought tickets for both the Stones concert, I have spent almost $4,000 on the Stones concerts already (not to mention Prince and Neil Young).So, why should I be robbed of my fun and joy in enjoying a concert while I have paid so much because of the unreasonable and senseless rigidity of the security system or the guards.If the promoter is not willing to do something about this issue, there would never be a concert culture in HK. What is the point of spending 100 million dollars on something if you cannot at least learn something? |
| Entry to site should be better arranged - the walking distance is too far |
| Even those people who paid nearly $2,000 a seat to see the Rolling Stones had to stand throughout most of the concert. This is because everyone else in front of them were standing. This is both a management problem, as well as a problem of the Tamar venue being unsuited for a rock concert (with its flat layout/floor). |
| Every year invite superstar to hong kong,eg. Eagle,Paul Macartney,the show become worldwide famous show and more tourist come to Hong Kong. |
| Everything the best |
| Everything was fine as far as I am concerned - a good, convenient location, easily obtainable tickets. However some of my colleagues seem to have had little knowledge of the Harbourfest. Even five days ago (Nov1), someone was unaware that the Rolling Stones were appearing, still believing that they had been cancelled. So it seems that there are some publicity problems promoting the events. |
| EXCELLENT - I am sick of all this NEGATIVE talk. This has been a very good effort for a first attempt. Many thngs will have been learnt by the organisers with what has happened, maybe if a performance has to be cancelled in the future or performance changes take please, two tickets per person would be more reasonable than the 4 given out this time. We learn by our mistakes but I feel that the mistakes were small........ so hopefully the media will get a grip on life and finally accept that this has all been a SUCCESS and congratulations are due all round. We sat among people from USA, Brazil,Taiwan and all had flown in especially to attend the concerts. Some had been on both nights to see the Stones. |
| Excellent, excellent, excellent idea -- really hope all the negative publicity does not deter continuation. With a full year to prepare, and all the experience from this year, it will be outstanding from now on. |
| except rolling stone, santana , I think the other shows,all the tickets should be low price for young people and tourists |
| exit too narrow at CITIC Plaza, only one way out, dangerous. They should open the escalators in the lobby too.expensive seats too much to the side of the stage are not goodstaff very pleasant, helpful. Toilets OK, above expectation.There should be a concert pass where you can go to 3 or more concerts with reasonable price. The Stones big middle screen was very good. Sloped seating is better is you are short ! |
| Fantastic event and location. HK needs more such events/festivals with top acts. |
| Find a way to reduce the sitting capacity when neededhave cheaper tickets (amongst the A seats)Lightings and visuals where all the same for all the concerts. Need to have more and or some fireworks as the Stones in EuropeLocal artists are not good in front of internationals. Not professional enough but are good to be here for HK and also they only sing 3 songs so that's OK. But I think it would be better if some of them could have their own night instead of 2 songs in front of a big star ! |
| Firstly I want to say that the harbourfest was fantastic. I don't care about the rumours and scandals. It really created a feel good factor.The media did a stupid job of putting a negative angle on the whole event.I was amazed by how many people from different places had come to see the shows.I met Brazilians and Guatamalans who had come to see it!!Definitely good for HKs image. My suggestions for the future are to make the area infront of the stage 'stand only' like big concert halls in UK. Alot of people ended up standing on their chairs obscuring the views of people seated on lower seats in the arena.The stand area should have a fixed price. Those who paid the highest price for front row seats may have felt somewhat ripped off as people from lower priced seats were able to edge their way to the front on ground level. This was the same for the Gypsy kings.Either make the ground area the same price or section it off according to price so that noone is getting ripped off.All in all I enjoyed it thoroughly and would like to see more. |
| Food and beverage arrangements were appalling. Queues were far too long. Outside the venue, Police were generally not relaxed despite the relaxed nature of the concert goers. In one instance, I saw a police officer barking instructions in cantonese at a bunch of western people. |
| for a concert of this scale, it is ridiculous to have seating-only in the area immediately in front of the stage. This is a rock concert, not a banking convention - people need to stand, move around and not be made to feel that they must stand quietly and behave. Far from suggesting that people be encouraged to adopt unpleasant manners, I am merely pointing out that at any large scale musical event in any other city around the world, the thought of asking people to sit down(!!!) would be unimaginable. People who want to pay top dollar to get as close as possible to the performer should be allowed to do so, and not have to file in. If people want to sit and watch a rock concert, fine, but they can choose to sit in the stands on the periphery. My entire group felt that the spirit of the show was enormously undermined by small minded, petty officials and other concert goers who were so stringent about sitting/standing/breathing correctly. This is NOT the philosophy of a rock concert. It was far too structured. Lighten up!!!p.s. Your demographic profile below - age, educational attainment and personal monthly income are a: none of your business and you should not be asking people questions of this personal nature on a general questionairre, and b: irrelevant. |
| For anybody or anything there must be room for improvements. Even toddlers understand and keep on practicing. Sadly, the law-makers and the media discipline have made a fuss over the Fest, imposing so negative an image of HK on an international level. They placed judgement on the Fest before its completion, before the concerned parties even have a chance to explain. Shame on the law maker and media. There are so many positive things about life, and I really hope that for similar events in the future we will be able to enoy the music without the damn noise around from the law-maker and the media. If they are doing good things for HK, just keep their mouths SHUT! We have ICAC, Audit Commission, and an excellent legislative framework here in HK. Hope future Fests improve and enjoyable.Music, an intenational language, never dies!!Simon CHAN |
| For this year's Harbourfest, would have been better to have cheaper ticket prices and 100% sold out shows. If shows had quickly sold out, we would not have had the same level of controversy.Government let the organisers down. After all, Tung himself pledged the money. LegCo approved it in the Finance Committee.There should be a no smoking rule. And there was certainly a little too much beer flowing. (Hey, I had a beer -- but not two jugs.) Sell pints only.Please do a better job of crowd control! |
| Forget all the hype and nonsense that we have all see, just make sure this becomes an Annual event |
| Forget the unwarranted criticism. It has been a total success. |
| Future Harbour Fests may be smaller but I thought the organization of the concerts was great....quick to get in, check bags, find seats, great sound, good sight from where we sat, quick exit for the number of people, especially for Santana where the number were higher than Neil Young (the two concerts I went to). I think it would be great to have international artists more often. We had a marvelous time at both Santana and Neil Young. Thank you! |
| Get rid f the seats in front of the stage and let people dance - typical stupid HK concert set up! Make it free seating at the back so people can sit there if they like. |
| good idea, nonsense excution, cannot promote hk, offer too much to the artist, should charge the artist for advertising themselves into China and HK. |
| Good performance, very bad organiser |
| good shows, bad promotion |
| Good sound. Good venue. Nice weather.Pedestrian traffic flow was bit annoying, particularly through the CITIC tower to Admiralty!! City should prohibit vehicular traffic on the streets immediately around the site, at least after the concert! |
| Government should participate,subsidize.No politic |
| Govt handling/consultaion with public and local organisations affected by HarbourFest competition non-existent or typically cynical and notional. |
| Govt shouldn't use taxpayers money to pay performers. Should have made Tamar site available free to promotors and Govt built stage and seating. Very angry about making me pay twice -- once for tax, and then very expensive tickets! |
| Great concept. Exactly what Hong Kong needs. It should be done every year. The venue is superb- for a change really "world class". The real only major problem was promotion which was not good but could be improved in the lioght of experience and given more time to plan in the future |
| Great idea. The organization was terrible. Should have been handled by professionals - not Amcham. However, Amcham should be credited for taking the initiative. Despite the negative publicity and cost, there were a lot of positives about the event which could be built on |
| harbour fest becomes a joke, Hong Kogn people should take big part of the resposbility. The evidence of no music culture in HK is shamefully obvious. |
| Harbour Fest is a great idea. It needs more promotion, especially to local, Chinese people. The festival should include a mix of famous international stars, as well as popular local stars. I enjoyed being able to see popular and famous international stars (Michelle Branch, Air Supply). I hope this music festival will become an annual event. I wish local Hong Kong people would become more actively involved in trying to help the economy - it seems that most of the audience consisted of ex-pats from USA, UK, Australia, etc. |
| Harbour Fest is for Hong Kong and by and large it had achieved its objective. The negative press is detrimental to HK and even the performing artists are only too aware of it. Hong Kong media should report both side of the story rather than behaving like the Red Guards tearing down anything that is postiive. organizers whose intention is very good. |
| harbour fest should be ready to do sth if it rains.security can b better.more toilets.better spacing between each row. |
| Harbour Fest would have been more successful if it had not been criticised by parties/individuals such as Democratic Party and Emily Lau. This criticism had racist elements - Emily Lau's suggestion that Hong Kong people did not want these concerts was particularly offensive to non-Chinese permanent residents. |
| harbourfest has been great. Fantastic location - a permenant stadium should be built there to take advanatge of the superb, unique location - concerts in the very heart of HK! (with retractable roof for the summer rain). Harbourfest has received a lot of very biased and unfair publicity. I have enjoyed it very much. I was happy to pay the ticket prices, they are what I would expect for such international acts. As one of the few tax payers in HK I think any government funding has been well worth it. I enjoyed the Stones so much on Friday I am going back tonight |
| Harbourfest has the potential to become an annual event that would attract support from around the Asian region |
| Harbourfest is a great idea, but it lacked publicity. It was unclear who was performing. The seating was badly planned. The tickets were a bit too expensive. Having concerts so close togther can't always afford it or make some of the dates. Some artists had very few ticket sales, different acts could have been chosen, many of the artists were suitable for an older audience- there were no big current stars performing. Tax payers money was wasted, concerts should pay for themselves. |
| Have beer vendors circulate - same as during Rugby 7's |
| have more each year. live music in a great outdoor sitting is unbeatable in my opinion. I have seen hundreds of rock shows. The Neil Young show was top 5 of all of them, The Stones are fantastic. Crowd control was smooth. Plenty of toilets. Easy access to drinks, easy departure from arena. Great seating arrangements. All was great! |
| Have seats in a layout so that someone doesn't face the head of another audience member. |
| Having been to concerts on successive nights, I was surprised at how quiet the Rolling Stones were compared with Neil Young. In fact, speaking to people who went to other concerts, the overall volume (or rather, lack of it) was a problem. Also, I find it quite ridiculous that I had to que for over an hour to get a drink (and that was through meeting a colleague who was already half-way down the que!). One beer tent to service the needs of nearly 13,000 people? I think someone didn't think this through very well!!! |
| HK is a cultural desert. Anything that is vaguely different I will attend.You need to stop being so critical of people trying to do something good. Why do HKers always want to BLAME someone - the culture of blame is such a destructive thing. It probably relates back to the Brit occupation but you need to get over it.This is obviously a gweilo thing - ie the concert. I don't see why they can't have some fun too.Just relax and learn from experience. We have had some of the world's greatest performers/artists in contemporary popular music. That has been a great feat. Full congrats to all the organisers for their hard (unrecognised or appreciated) work. |
| HK should have more international artists, like the Rolling Stones, Charlotte Church, and Jose Carreras performing here. |
| HK should try to get exclusive concerts so to attract more international visitors. Although this will cost more, tickets could be priced higher and a bigger stadium could be constructed. E.g. Led Zeppelin. |
| Hong Kong artist & overseas star should perform in different dayMy choice for next year is U2, REM,David Bowie, Radiohead,Portihead,Suede, bjork,Dou Wei from China....More clear & confirmed information on promotionPromotion should start earlier |
| Hong Kong as an international city should consider how we could host this kind of world class musical event on a regular basis. This not only can promote Hong Kong's image as a world city but could also raise the standard in the entertainment buisness. Government should consider proper venue for such event. The Tamar sit is a good spot but due to its size with limited capacity that may result it infeasible financially. Government should reconsider the Hongkong Stadium which is a suitable venue for organising this type of event. The enviroment concern is an issue that needs to be addressed but Government should hold a more balance view as to the overall benefit for the betterment of HongKong as a whole. |
| Hong Kong citizen should fully support this event no matter how bad the organization has been ruined by the government or any other bodies. Despite the organization, the showers were great, artists were excellent, they all are international stars, their performance was so gooood that no words can be fully explained. I personally like the show very much, and i even feel ashame of HK as those artist's performance were like top of the world while NOT TOO many HK citizen has such sense (international music sense or level, whatever) to enjoy and therefore take advantage of such good music shows. No wonder the shows lift my music and sense of living to a higher or even to an international level. I support HK, i love HK. I won't forget the nights that i spent with those top artists as I feel i am so lucky that i can stay so close to those artists. |
| Hong Kong is a wonderful city to work and live; however, in my four years being here, I've been surprised that more of the larger scale Int'l acts are absent. It seems the likes of Tokyo, Singapore, Bangkok, Sydney, etc. get a more steady stream of the types of performers that we've seen here in Hong Kong over the last serveral weeks during the Harbour Fest. The stage, sound system, and seating were excellent. With such a known list of talent appearing in many U.S. venues (arena or stadium) it would have been impossible to get so close to the artists. Here the site held 13,000 and provided a more intimate setting. All the seats were good. Yes, the ticket prices might have been slightly on the high side,but, once again, you were seeing top level entertainment. As for the setting, you could have not asked for more. Withthe City Skyline of Central in front of you and the Harbor/TST behind you, it was a magnificent place to sit and enjoy not onlythe shows. Very few Cities could offer a setting so beautiful.Yes, there were some mistakes made and things can be improved; however, let's consider this was the first year of such an event, and things can be corrected for future undertakings. I do hope the negative press that seemed to surround the event will be taken in perspective. I had the feeling that rather then support and see many of the positive and good aspects, the media tended to focus on much to much of the negative. As we've seen in many areas, negative press attracts viewers and readers. Unfortunately, it sells. I wonder if some more of the presss had gotten behind the event, if it might have been better received.Overall, I totally enjoyed attending Prince, The Gypsy Kings,Santana, Neil Young & Michelle Branch, as well as, The Rolling Stones on both nights. While attending 6 events, we also purchased tickets for the Twins, Atomic Kitten & Tatu Show, as well as, Gary G. Having more local Asian Talent participate is also most important. But here I believe they must perform live and not do as much lip syncing This should not merely be an ex-pat event but for everyone. I would hope this is not the last Harbour Fest, but rather the start of a yearly event. There is great potential and it is something that should be promoted and planned; not ripped apart. |
| Hong Kong media is too noisy and too political that spoiled the good intention of organising this event which is supposed to promote Hong Kong to the international communities after the SARs attack. |
| Hong Kong needs venues like the Tamar site. When there is money to be made, big attractions will come automatically, so there is no need for the SAR government to organize on the citizens' behalf. Working foks like us don't have the time to go get free tickets anyway. If the government wants to help the thing to do is to build venues for big events. Music lovers will dish out all they have to be part of the event. |
| Hong Kong should be more positive, less critical.We have a great city and this was a great event.Hong Kong should be shouting how good a city it is from the rooftops. |
| Hong Kong U guys, stop complaint!! Hong Kong will be much better!!! |
| I agree activities of this kind can prompt the image of HK; however, I strongly disagree that the HKSAR gov't should involve in this kind of activities at HK people's expense |
| I also love Westlife, so I hope the Government can invite Westlife to perform every year. And also I hope next year can arrange some shuttle buses to the MTR stations and bus stops, such as to Central, Wan Chai and also Admiralty. I also hope that there can be more gifts sold in the venue, because I am Westlife's super fans and I cannot buy their things!! They were already sold out in a short period of time. But the prices are set too high, many young people cannot afford to pay for those, such as students. Finally, I want to say that I really don't like the local singers to sing at the venue because they are disturbing. I only want to enjoy the show with the international singer I paid for. Such as I only want Westlife to sing for three hours, because the time for them to perform is too short. I don't want to see others Asia stars or local stars in the venue. And I think the time for the international stars are extremely too short. It is much shorter than the local stars' concert, they usually sing for two or three hours. But the Harbour Fest only last for one or two hours and plus some Asia or local singers. I think that's not fair to the international stars as the Government paid them for singing to us for only one hour!!!!! |
| I believe Rolling Stones music should have been available at the concert. T-shirts with "ROLLING STONES HONG KONG" would have been more valuable (I bought 4 of the others). More sizes in shirts.Tiered seating for ALL the seats would have been better, but I just loved being in Hong Kong and seeing the Stones was a fabulous experience. The venue was great. |
| I could not afford to see all the acts I wanted to in such a short space of time. Such high-level concerts should be spread out more evenly, not concentrated into a short period. |
| I enjoyed all the concerts a lot. I thought the performers were great. the organisation/admin/promotions need to improve. Overall, it is good to organise similar concerts for HK but w/o having to use tax-payers money. |
| I found the seating arrangements a bit of a problem. Some of the expensive seats gave worse views than some of the cheaper ones, particularly the ones to the side. Other than that, it privided the best selection of international popular music stars that I've seen in Hong Kong in 20 years. Well done AmCham and InvestHK. I'm sorry you had to go through such grief from the media for putting it together. |
| I had been pushed by the same security guard twice. Positive and properly training and briefing to lower level guard are required. |
| I have been here 8 years, these are the best shows I have EVER seen here. truly amazing; stars, moon, music, party atmosphere, great scenary. the only problem is that the people who run HK never did this before!! Outdoor, international live acts should be here MANY times a year--not once, not twice but MANY!! the Legco better get their act together.They do not have a clue about how to run "fun" exciting programs for HK. Thank god someone stepped up and hit a hoerun for HK!!! SO I will repeat; THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST EVENTS IN THE LAST 8 YEARS FOR HK AND SHOULD BE RUN EVERY YEAR! |
| I have great sympathy for the intentions and efforts of Jim Thomson and AmCham. However, the promotion of the whole event was a shambles. If done again, this aspect should surely be looked at closely with a view to do it better. |
| I have no negative comments to make, but I would like to see the venue preserved for event such as this rather than another Govt Building or wast of money such as a new building to house the LegCo loonies |
| I hope that they can held similar music festival in the coming up year. cuz I really enjoy the show |
| I just want to say that I am sick of listening to negative press about this wonderful event and I feel that that SCMP has latched on to an angle (negative) and has been like a dog with a bone, if they had taken a more positive stance I am sure the event would have at least have been written about in a postive way.As it stands the event WAS a very successful one. A most enjoyable time was had by me, my family and friends who attended Prince, Westlife Craig David, Santana, Michelle Branch & Neil Young plus the Rolling Stones and everyone I have spoken to were actually at a concert had a wonderful time. |
| I like this idea very much. Hong Kong should host such an event every November in the Tamar site to attract both the local people and tourists. Sitting in an open air auditorium and enjoying such shows is wonderful and new to Hong Kong people. Just that the organization should be improved and maybe should be given to competent professionals to do it. Government could generate revenue too if well run. |
| I missed many shows because I did not know that my faviourite artrists (like Charlotte Church & Jose Carreras) came to Hong Kong this time. Since I had to attend special events on the same days, I missed to buy tickets for our lovely Twins and the RussianTatu and very disappointed for Air Supply too. I have to tell the Government that even the British Singer was sick, I still support the the other two teams. It was not too fair to them. I bought the tickets for Rolling Stones for the show in March which was cancelled. So after it was confirmed that they will perform in the Harbourfest, I bought the ticket. I knew the programme through the newspaper which complained the arrangement the harbourfest. I think really the teamwork for the arrangemet is lacking especially on promoting the perfroming artists and programme. During the show on 7/11/2003, I even did not know there was another singer who performed before 8:00 pm. The tiket or the ticketing selling office showed nothing on this arrangement. Luckily I arrived early and did not miss the performance. It was good but I did not know who was the singer and the staff of the show can't tell me because they also din not know. I suggest the next time the Government gives to experienced Performing Organization to arrange or at least to suporrt the shows. The price of tikets may be considered to have discount for audience who buy tickets for several shows. Promotion is very important. |
| I only attended the Rolling Stones concert and thought it was brilliant, and appreciated the fact, that although I couldn't attend any others, that international performers of such fame and calibre were brought to HK.With regard to peoples attitudes towards Harbourfest - well, you can look at anything from a pessimistic/negative angle - but I feel that many people like myself enjoyed what they experienced. |
| i only want to see a good show,other thing i don't care |
| i only want to see a good showother thing i don't care |
| I paid for my tickets but many others got free tickets. |
| I saw the Wiggles with my wife and children and the R Stones with my wife and friends and we loved Harbourfest and the concept. Sorry to see all the sniping that has gone on. BUT my one complaint is that it was too many concerts in too short a time. We wanted to see Neil Young and Santana but they were in the :"same week" as the Stones and as we have kids and work, the idea of three late nights in a week was impossible to consider/arrange/attend. If it is repeated why not copy the HK Arts Festival (which we also go to) and that is stretch it over 3 months so that we can go to at least one performance a month for the duration of the festival (which is what we do with the Arts Festival...e.g. we are going to one in Feb and one in March and considering a third one, as all are widely spaced out which gives us more opportunity and flexibility to consider/arrange/attend) Good luck with the future. |
| I strongly complain against (i) audience standing up (some waving their hands & body) during the event and obstructing other audience. The management was doing nothing about this, (ii) audience was allowed to smoke and caused others to inhale second hand smoke, (iii) people were soiling the seats with their jugs of beer sold inside the venue. If these are not rectified, I'll never attend this kind of concert again!!! |
| I suggest that for HK$1,500 a person can buy a package of 5 tickets to attend any 5 concerts. I would have went to every concert, but it was just too expensive (especially with my tax bill having just arrived a few weeks before). If we could have bought a package I would have went to 5 instead of only 3 concerts and the audience capacity would have been full instead of the poor attendance at some shows.I believe it is amazing that the Harbour Fest was put together in under 100 days, but I think it was foolish to believe that the Public would thank the Government and AmCham for wasting so much money by rushing this project through. It could have been much better organised. |
| I think that this should be a regular event in this location. However it should be for a shorter time only engaging world class performers in all kinds of music events This was a very good way to spend public money |
| I think a better method of entry to the site should be considered - the long distance and crowded walk is not good. |
| I think Cantonese Chinese are generally very negative in regards to everything that has to do with there own society and do not have any international interests at all. They only like Canto pop and local stars. On the mainland and in the rest of Asia, the interest for foreign entertainers/performers and musicians is much higher and much more international. There is a totally different ambition level and a much higher drive to learn from others. Hong Kong Chinese are in general very strange, unique and very odd in this respect.The stage was totally wrongly designed as it was totally impossible to see the stage and e.g Charles Watts from the sides. There must be and there are other venues and also other much better stage designers.Prices are too high. We have attended Stones concerts in Europe and had first class "positions" for the equivalent HKD 350!!! We paid HKD 1305 for a limited front side view!!!! |
| I think Harbour fest is a fantastic idea!!! I met people at the concert who flew in especially for the concert!!! Think of how much $$ all these people are adding to the HK economy!!! I am disgusted with how the media has turned this event into a big political saga. I say good on Amcham for the initiative of organising this and the $100M to tax payers? I believe that HK will benefit 10 fold from this event and more events like it.Can you give me the details of the people at Amcham who are responsible for Harbour Fest? I want to send them a thank you card. |
| I think Harbourfest was a great idea. It made me very proud to see big stars in such an intimate, convenient, outdoor location. Having lived in HK for 10 years. we are used to the hassle and disappointment of trying to attract and stage performances by big name performers in locations such as HK Stadium (gloves on hands etc.) It was a delight to see great performers set against the magnificent backdrop of HK's skyline, with no noise restrictions or silly rules. Like many new ventures, Harbourfest has sadly attracted a great deal of criticism. From where I sat it was a great experience, and I was in cheap seats I paid for myself ! Why don't we use it as a learning experience and make next year's Harbourfest even better ? |
| I think it is a great show for foreign residents or tourist rather than for local people. For local chinese people, the price is too high for them and they will much prefer to spend money on the HK local singers. They will focus on the production fancy stuffs likes backdrop, animations, dressing etc and not much care about the quality of the performer. I enjoy very much myself, with beer in my hands and dancing freely with the others. The atmosphere of the show is pretty high. The foods & drinks are great too. The prices is low than I thought too. There is no way to achieve the objective of the show which is to provide HK residents the best in "feel good" international entertainment. It definity not a show for the chinese, at least not yet this time. |
| I think it is good idea to have local & international artists performing on the same stage provided that they played together i.e. not in the way it was performed. I think gov't should only act as a facilitator to support organizing event like this instead of paying for the event. Should gov't be more supporting e.g. iin providing the event, promotion we could have more of this sort event without spending too much of public funding. Moreover, should we want to promote HK thru' event like this, we got to promote it well, well in advance. It is very rush & hence didn't achieve what intended. |
| I think it was a great idea - the only copmplaint was the complaints about the concerts.. there really was no reason to complain.The other problem was the short lead time - but understandable due to the small window of great weather at this time of year. More notice would be better.being able to stand up and dance was a bonus - I found everything fabulous.The ticket prices were expensive - but then they always are in HK. |
| i think it was a great idea bringing international stars to hong kong. HK needs this and must be a music destination. But start small and learn how to stage one proberly over the years. Why spend so much at once????? I feel hk needs this though and must have professional event managers take over this business . That is the key |
| I think next time the press should concentrate more on the positive aspects of the event, they made things even worse by totaly concentrating on the negative sides. The organizer of the HF did a great job and I do think that they learned from their mistakes. Lets' hope that after all the negative imput they received they are still willing to do this again next year. |
| I think that Harbourfest is fantastic.Great performers - best combination of acts in a 3 week period in the history of music.A dramatic improvement on anything before in Hong Kong.The first great music venue in Hong Kong - and one of the best in the world (harbour and city view).Well organized seating and food/drink.With longer planning next year, will get tourists and corporate sponsorship |
| I think that the audience should have been able to see the harbour view |
| I think that the organizer should fulfill the 5 year contract. That way, we may be able to make back the losses from this year. With the short announcement period, they were able to pull off several good shows - Santana, Gipsy Kings and Rolling Stones. Too bad nowadays, the general feeling of the Hong Kong Public is like to have heads rolling, rather than learning from mistakes. With what I have seen from last night's concert, I feel that the organizer can do a better job for Harbour Fest in the years to come. |
| I think the Harbour Fest, despite all criticism, was an enormous success. The open air venue was stunning, the seating configuration worked, the atmosphere was fantastic, with freedom being given by the organisers and security guards for people to move around (ie stand and dance) and enjoy themselves. There was no heavy handedness and we were treated like adults who could be trusted to enjoy ourselves and behave - and have fun!I wish I'd gone to more concerts but was away for part of the time. Everyone I spoke to, who went to Prince, Westlife, Santana, Neil Young, Jose Carreras, Rolling Stones (twice), Wiggles, said all acts were fantastic. There was a great variety of world class acts.I think that Harbour Fest should be staged every two years - in an open air venue, ideally Tamar, where there are no noise restrictions or indoor constrictions and where people attending can feel the buzz, beauty and vibrancy of Hong Kong at night. It could easily become a well known event with international acts and I'm sure it would attract visitors from other Asian countries - it could become another Hong Kong Sevens!Also, for example, while queuing on Sunday for a second round of tickets, I met visitors from the US who had flown in that morning on business who couldn't believe that the Rolling Stones were playing in such a small and intimate venue and they were prepared to pay top dollar for the opportunity to buy last minute tickets. That was another great thing - the ticketek service - having an office open on the day next to the venue, for people to walk in and buy tickets.All in all, I've heard nothing negative from any of those who attended and they all thought that the whole event was incredibly well staged and managed so congratulations to those who put the event together and made it happen. I am not aware that there were any problems with the staging of the performances.I really hope that a similar event can be organised again. If so, I have no doubt that there will be a ready made audience who remember the success of Harbour Fest and who will be first in line to enjoy more - if I'd been in Hong Kong for Prince's opening act, I'm sure I would have attended more concerts during the week - thank goodness I'd bought tickets for the Friday night concert of the Rolling Stones so that I could return for the Sunday night finale - and I was one of several who did because the music, the setting and the atmosphere made us want more. |
| I think the idea of expecting tax payer to pay heavily for the Harbourfest is unexceptable... Why should the public bear the cost when this should have been paid for by individual ticket sales, promotors, vendors, etc. Even though I paid to attend only one cencert, why should the 'general' Hong Kong public be expected to pay towards this event. Amcham and other orgainsers should have seeked the professional assistance of PROMOTORS to help finance this event. Government should have been more responsible is handing out tax payers contributions in this mannor. Not impressed with the whole run-up to the event and serious lack of positive PR, funding etc.... The voice of the PEOPLE. |
| I think the main problem was in organizing and promotion of the concert. If done with local coordination, many people could have had a good time. The tix were also too expensive for the regular HK person to enjoy. It should not be the goal of the concert to only provide enjoyment for the wealthy or the ex-patriate. |
| I think the only PROBLEM with harbour fest was the negative publicity and lack of support from the Hong Kong media. In true Hong Kong fashion-we only report the 'negative" . If Hong Kong is to be a regarded as a world class CITY we have to stopping thinking in a VILLAGE mentality. Harbour Fest was FANTASTIC. |
| I think the seating arrangements weren't up to par, for $1000 seats for Prince, too far from the stage. Control of the crowd rushing forward to stage from $288 price seated area not good.Can there be a standing area next time infront of stage instead of seats, people want to dance not sit down to Prince/Craig David. If its Opera then sitting down is fine. Hong Kong People want to dance not sit down. I think alcohol should be banned from concerts as drunk people get too aggressive without realising and they ruin the fun for sober people. The stage size was too small for the seating plan that was so wide, good viewing from the side must have been hard? |
| I think there are several reasons for its failure: Inadaquate advertising, tickets pricing, performer selection, etc. Actually, the shows and the performers are spetacular and I really enjoyed. However, I don't think there will be such events held in the future. |
| i thoroughly enjoyed both the concerts i went to and feel that the person who organised the harbour fest deserves some compliments as it was a memorable experience |
| I thoroughly enjoyed the concerts I attended and everyone I saw seemed to be enjoying themselves as well. THIS IS WHAT HONG KONG NEEDS MORE OF. I am THOROUGHLY disgusted by the negative press coverage and the finger-poiniting of some of our politicians. |
| I thoroughly enjoyed the harbourfest and wa very proud to be part of Hk and be able to attend so many performance done by renouned international performers. I did not go to the local artist concerts since I don't really know them. I was going with friends from all over the world and everyone could not stop praising the event/venue/international artists. We were so drawn by the local of the fest - convenient, open, and looking at the skyscrapers behind the stage, we truly felt that it was the most appropriate spot for the fest and we were lucky to be there. One suggestion is that the stage should be there permenantly and performance should go on on a regular basis throughout the year, and have one month in a year, e.g. July/August destinated to be the music festival and have concentrated number of top stars coming to perform that month. For other months of the year, the place can be used for all sorts of activities such as cantonese operas/cultural dances/magic shows/small exhibitions/small fleet market/monthly promotional activities, the list goes on.. In conclusion, it is something we enjoy and would like to see more of it. |
| I thought the idea was brilliant! Should do it every year! |
| I thought the venue was great!! I've been at many music fests in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, and this venue was one of the most convenient, accessible, and comfortable ever. I particularly appreciated the food and Starbucks stands, because it allowed me to grab dinner at the concert directly after work. The sound system/ mixing/ amplification was, as a rule, excellent!! The slate of acts were a nice mix, though they definitely skewed a bit "old". Except for Prince, there were no performers of "my generation" (e.g., R.E.M., Bjork, Everclear), and nothing particularly "alternative" (except maybe Niel Young). That said, I enjoyed most of the shows very much (including Karen Mok, who opened for Prince). It would be nice to see more Asian artists (Faye Wong, David Teo, A*Mei) on the bill, but personally, I'm not sure I would pay to see them headline. In general, I think the ticket prices for the best seats were a little expensive, but worth the price in the end. As I remarked to my fiancee, nowhere in the West would you be able to get seats that close to the stage at that price. (You would either have to be very lucky or pay a scalper hundreds of US dollars.) Of interest to you might be the fact that I care nothing for the Stones--as far as I'm concerned they are the least interesting act on the slate (well, maybe second to Air Supply). And the tickets (for the Stones only) were, I thought, prohibitively priced. Better to get more of the other acts than a monster expensive headliner like the Stones. |
| I THOUGHT THIS WAS A FANTASTIC EVENT, IT DISAPPOINTS ME THAT IT HAS RECEIVED SO MUCH CRITICISM, HONG KONG NEEDS BIG EVENTS LIKE THIS, I APPRECIATE THE GOVERNMENT HAS SUBSIDIZED THIS EVENT BUT ACTUALLY ITS A RELATIVELY SMALL AMOUNT AND I'M SURE THEY WASTE MONEY ON FAR WORSE THINGS THAN THIS, I REALLY HOPE THIS BECOMES AN ANNUAL EVENT |
| I understand much of the expertese involved in promotion bringing acts to HK, staging, lighting etc came from overseas -- so did not benefit Hong Kong businesses in those areas. Particularly if Harbour Fest is to become a regular event (which I think it should), Hong Kong must be able to provide this type of support locally so the Festival is truly "home grown" and directly benefits Hong Kong people and businesses.I have heard promotors in the past complain how obstacles are placed in their way by various government departments and the logistical difficulties imposed by largely unecessary and petty bureaucratic requirements are nightmarish. The mere fact that Harbour Fest was staged so quickly is a clear indication that these petty regulations or requirements were ignored or fast tracked for a government sponsored event -- all promotors should be able to put on shows with such speed and efficiency. Make it easier to stage more concerts and events outside the Harbour Fest concept -- in particular, get huge acts to come to HK and perform at the stadium (which is a magnificent venue for a concert and is a totally underused facility -- lower prices for tickets at a larger facility will attract more people with more benefit to HK people. |
| I want HOLLY VALANCE (who is from Australia)to come to Hong Kong!!!!!She is the best of the best!Also, Sammi Cheng from Hong Kong is also the best of the best! |
| I wanted to see some crossover between Michelle and Neil actually, beacause if they perform separately, there is no need to make them perform at the same night. |
| I was disappointed in the Quality of the Local Bands that Played before the "Stones" Too loud and no talent! |
| I was involved in the initial concept and development of the idea of annual music festivals in HK,,,i was part of the initial team that tried to put on the Pearl River Festival , so i am fully supportive of this. Especially the venue which was our designation. I feel proud that what we proposed was finally achieved ...albeit not by us...but i think we made good inroads and contributed to this finally happening here in HK. |
| I would like to if AmCham will use these live performances materials such as filming of each show to promote Hong Kong for a period of time. |
| I would really like Punk Rock bands to perform in the next Harbour Fest ( e.g. Blink 182, Good Charlotte or SUM 41 etc ) |
| I'd like to say... the government can do even better than this. the idea is nice but there should be a more organized plan for holding the function. |
| ideal location for concert with backdrop of harbour and hk island skyline |
| if in the same place swap the arena 180 degrees, as the lights fo all the buildings makes it harder to focus on the stage, plus having the harbour (whats left of it) would be a more attractive backdrop. also what about multiple venues, such as the hong kong stadium - set up like how wembly in london was for concerts; or at kai tak (the old airport) and use a hanger - great idea, like a ball in 89 or 90, or using the area where the plane parked - using that empty land(at the moment). another downside was the bottleneck to get on the walkway to the mtr - hundreds trying to get through 2 exit doors and up stairs to the bridge. also having the large screens away from the stage and bigger. |
| If the gov't wants to hold the Harbourfest next year, it should get a better organizer, have better promotion, and use less fund to sponsor it. |
| If you have another Harbourfest, make sure you get Neil Young back - he was GREAT!!! |
| I'm sure more people would like to attend the concerts, but probably attended only 1 or 2 shows due to financial constraints. Time period to short. I would rather see concerts of international status/acts say 4 times per year evenly spread. Whilst this harbour venue was excellent, HK really needs a proper venue - I do not understand why the HK stadium cannot be used for a very large concert say 3 - 4 times per year. People living close will only be inconvenienced infrequently. |
| Improve sound quality. Extend the stage at the front both stage right and left so that the bands can get closer to the crowd. Put a giant TV screen on the back of the lighting rig in the middle of the stadium. |
| In my opinion HK Harbourfest was poorly promoted and, due to all the problems, generated only poor press. Better organization by professionals should improve the situation. Have separate local and international artists concerts because I feel the two don't mix well. Overall the tickets were too expensive for the majority of HK residents. |
| In the Westlife and Air Supply concerts the sound mix was not balanced and the sound was too loud. The sound for Jose Carreras concert was distorted. The sound system for The Rolling Stones was just right. Hong Kong people should have been more supportive of the Harbour Fest instead of criticising and complaining so much. A major problem was publicity which was not as widespread as it could have been mainly I believe because of the cost of advertising. Local organisations/companies could have been more supportive by providing free promotion/advertising instead of 'knocking' the event at every opportunity. The HarbourFest was initiated and organised FOR Hong Kong by people who are not born/bred in Hong Kong but who are deeply committed to HK. However, there appeared to be a complete lack of support for them, as well as a general lack of interest from HK people and HK companies/organisations whose only contribution was to criticise. Shame on the HK people and congratulations to the organisers and performers for making Harbourfest a truly great world class event despite all the difficulties. |
| Inadequate promotion material incl. details of ticket prices.To promote each artistes on its own. |
| Insufficient publicity, confusion on which artist will perform and when, how to book tickets and etc |
| Invite international artists that HK people like, both young and new. For example: Madonna, Whitney Houston rather than Prince. From Japan, try Southern all Stars, Matsuda Seiko and Nakamori Akina. These are superstars of more than 20 years that were very very popular in HK but still haven't had a concert in HK like the Rolling Stones. Their concerts will surely be sold out. On the young side, they should have invited F4 from Taiwan for this year's opening show. It will definitely be sold out!! Know what HK people wants!!!! |
| Invite more people that are not old, so that teenagers and kids can enjoy more. Invite Atomic Kitten to the next Harbour Fest too, because many people were dissapointed when they cancelled. |
| Invite Paul Mccartney, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, Eric Clapton, Simon & Garfunkell to harbour fest next year. |
| It has been the best musical experience HK has ever had. |
| It is a fantastic venue and idea. The weather was good but what happens if it rains? Would like to have this every year. |
| It is definitely a fanastic idea to have such 'mega' event. Very nice venue and arrangement. Just the promotion was quite lacking. I would support the idea that such event should be held every year to attract people around Asia. Some of my friends do fly to Hong Kong to see some superstars. But would it be attractive enough if it is to be held every year (that people from other country would come again, and again, too much of a good thing may bore people)? But it should not be sponsored by the government. The venue is excellent - may be that is the only sponsorship that government can show support. More of such popular culture on international standard should be held to make Hong Kong look real like an international city with vitality and pumps up energy and creativity.If this event is sponsored by the government, then I think the government should supervise closer, and make the tickets cheaper if they know they do not have time for promotion. As I know from many sources that the government has given out lots of tickets for civil servants and hosptial authority etc, and many of them do not turn up. This is a shame. Such a waste seeing the good shows with empty seats!!! Shame on those who do perform 100% for us!!! It has not been fair to the performers and Hong Kong taxpayers!! |
| It is ludicrous at a rock concert to have more space for selling coffee than for selling beer! It took over 45 mins in a queue to get a beer - this is not acceptable.The "policing" of people staying in the right areas was good - I read that it was a mess at the first few concerts. But (as is often the case in HK) the "security" arrangements are sometimes very irrational - forcing you to use entrances on the opposite side of the stadium to your seat, employing gweilos whose only qualification for the job seems to be that they act and look like thugs, and so on. Recognising that (particulalrly at $2000 a ticket) you are dealing with a group of highly intelligent people, not a herd of cattle would be a start.The stage was obviously a compromise - the Stones weren't able to use the full tour rig including pyrotechnics - this was a shame. Also the sound was not perfect - they seemed to be trying to get too much noise out of very small speaker stacks. The bass sound was not good at the back of the arena.The price differential between the seats was far too high, and $2000 for a seat is too much - there are very few people in HK prepared to pay that much, and they certainly won't do it night after night. You tried to fill 25,000 seats for the Stones - that is approximately 50% takeup on the entire target market in HK - only a small percentage of local chinese will be interested in the Stones, and a tiny number of them at these outrageous prices. For a couple to get good seats for the Stones, Santana, Neil Young and the Gypsy Kings would have required a whole months average household income! (about HK$10000).I think a much better option for next year would be to run the Fest over Friday-Sunday perhaps with two or three stages and simply sell passes for the whole event.Alternatively organise a one day mega-concert in the HK Stadium (which is a perfect venue for Stadium Rock - it can cope with all the needs of 40,000 people as the HK Sevens weekend shows) with two or three top flight international acts playing. |
| It is unfortunate that Hong Kong has such a bias media which make more damage than help to Hong Kong economy. |
| it is very bad of the promotion |
| it should be organised by private sector. it would be more professional. |
| it was a bit too rushed with the publicity ,they could of advertised more round Asia .We should have an annual harbourfest, the location was great and good atmosphere |
| It was a great idea and a great show with political wrangling taking the edge off a showcase event. It should be run annually - but we need a permanent location - and prefessional promoters should be used - not Amcham |
| It was a world-class event. I know many people who travelled to HK just to watch Harbour Fest. |
| It was almost impossible to get a cold beer at the stones concert without missing the entire show. Also, the rest room facilities were a joke. I enjoyed the concert, but the lack of "refreshment" facilities, as well as bathroom facilities made it much less enjoyable, and less comfortable. |
| It was fantastic for me but for younger audiences and also local audiences there was not many artists to see. |
| It was fantastic. Very well organised. the security staff were very polite and helpful. The production and sound quality for the lead performers was superb. |
| It would be a great loss to HK & music lovers if the Harbourfest is not going to be held in future years because of various reasons. However, if it's to be held again, there is a strong need to do more in promoting the event in order to reduce government subsidy. |
| It would be better to use the Coliseum.....the distance of stage to audience was too far. Better to have the seats in the round with the stage in the centre. |
| It would look more spectacular if the stage backdrop is the famous harbour rather than sky scrapers as it arranged in this harbour fest. The attendance rate may be better if the concert arranged in the way that it is either international performers or the local performers. I feel very sorry for those local performers who doing their best to perform but unfortunately most of us are English speaking and unable to apprecaite it. In fact most people turn up after the local performers finished their shows. |
| Its a disgrace that the Hong Kong Stadium is not used for concerts on a regular basis. |
| It's a good idea to have a music festival every year. However, the organizer mess up the whole thing. The organizer can spend some more time to search for spondsors rather than asking our government for money. It's so obvious that the organizer is working for it's own fame not for HK. |
| It's a great show. I was in Hong Kong several times and this event showed that Hong Kong is Asia's World City. |
| It's good for HK to hold such an event, especailly after "SARS". It's a good treat for the expat community in HK and able to uphold a cosmopolitan image of HK among the non-locals. This helps establish HK to be the most preferred locations for HQs among expats, in view of keen competitions from major Asian cities eg Shanghai and Singapore. |
| It's great. The ambience is very good. i think these shows are the best show i have ever seen!!! |
| it's totally buushit show, wasting everybody's time & money!it seems mike rosses took our money to American.... this is the 2nd time,( last time is Disney Land).. |
| Its unfortunate that this fest has run into image problems and been mired in political controversy. It should be made an annual event but transparency should be increased |
| Joey Yung is a shame. We didn't want to see any lips sing. If she can't sing in a live concert. Why we ask her to perform? We don't need to invite any Hong Kong artistes, such as: Joey Yung, Hui Chi On and Tse Ting Fung to this kind of big event. They are not good enough. |
| JOEY Yung used MMO in her performance is a SIN and a SHAME.Live Band should be a basic requirement for all performances. |
| Joey Yung's performance was too unprofessional without live music. |
| Just one problem: too many great acts in a short space of time, meaning that you have to choose what to see based on time and budget. What HK needs is Tamar set up as a permanent concert venue with international acts coming regularly.Opinion: A sensational site, great acts and the organization at each night was very well handled. |
| Just one problem: too many great acts in a short space of time, meaning that you have to choose what to see based on time and budget. What HK needs is Tamar set up as a permanent concert venue with international acts coming regularly.Opinion: A sensational site, great acts and the organization at each night was very well handled. |
| Just want to know what exactly the $100 million was spent on - since it is taxpayer money not private investment. |
| Keep it going and more advanced planning to allow overseas visitor time to organize their trip |
| Keeping the crowd off the seats (blocks view from behind) was terrible. Keeping crowd out of the aisle was terrible. In these cases the security personnel were weak in their enforcment |
| lack of promotion/ cost of tickets meant some concerts were quite quiet |
| Lacking of advertisement/promotion, insufficient information on how to purchase tickets |
| LEAVE IT TO THE ENTREPRENEURS - NOT SODDING AMCHAM AND NOT THIS LAME DUCK CRONY LICKSPITTLE GOVT. |
| Leave the private sector to do next time. Free or cheap venue offered by the government, instead of monetary support. Casting is the most important, say, Eagles, Phil Collins, George Michael. |
| let music professionals use the goverment guarantees next time |
| Let the commercial sector run the business, it would be more professional like. It is a total failure for the SAR Government to sponsor the entertainment industry for an event like this, because of lack of experience and blindly rely on the management outsourceing to a big name agent. It is totally disorganised and in a mess as a whole! Worst of all, the SAR Governament has drained HK$100 M in vain. It would be more significant to asist the victum families suffered from tne SARS. Am Cham is running the event totally in a dark, it is also sad to learn from the media that the appointed organising company is owned by the Chairman of the Am Cham, it would be a potential conflict of interest. If I were given the option to choose, I would prefer to have a local profession entertainment company to run the show. The SAR should br more considerate for the elderly, long term sickness and the poverty. |
| let the musical promotor to run the program and it should be more efficiency. |
| lines for food and drink were too long! |
| Live performances of world class acts in HK are to be encouraged, in fact live performances in general at different locations, especially HK Stadium. Noise restrictions are bullshit, and applied unevenly (eg no restrictions on use of car horns!!)Government should selectively and occasionally sanction variation to noise limits to encourage open air concerts like HarbourFest.HarbourFest was a great idea, to be encouraged, but to be organised professionally, government to permit but not interfere.Also, even wealthy people cannot afford to go to too many events in a short space of time (qv Arts Festival feast/famine) and ,in fact don't want to. I would have gone to Rocket if I had not booked HarbourFest, normally I would think it unmissible. |
| Local artistes performnace quality - i) Joey Yung - MMmode + lip sync in a performance like this is just disgrace. ii) Nicolas Tse with a band is a bit better but not to mention himself and his band skills, for sure the mixing skills (may be local producer) of the producer has muddled the music. Good thing is after listening to such quality music, then when rollin stones began their show, you can feel the difference of heaven and hell.It is really a shame to talk about our own performer, but they themselves should really start working much harder to be a real singer rather than just an idol who has not even a bit of appreciation in music. |
| Long queues for beer and toiletsStage coild have been higher for better viewingExcellent centre stage video screen |
| Long queues to buy beer jugs. Not enough outlets. |
| Lower the prices. Spread out the concerts over a longer period of time, like once a week, if financially feasible. |
| lower ticket price a bit if all at once or just spread performances throughout the year not all at once - keep tamar site and install removable see through roof cover for wet weather so you can still see the perfect view - keep up the momentum and win hearts - don't let negativity rule - it was wonderful whatever the detractors say - if all year round then could plan for guests visiting hk |
| Media and LEGCO far too negative without justifiable cause |
| Media is on one side without objective reporting the truth of the event |
| Mike has a good idea but The American Chamber of Commerce has real problem in managing all through the functions. Financially, it is too expensive for government to subsidy such event which the event professional assume only part of the budget can cover the whole matter. I hope there won't be any pitfalls behind the good scene. |
| More acts needed.Better signage needed for seating,toilets etcmore refreshment outlets-queue for beer was ridiculous |
| More advance noticeWould have been very upset if it had rainedThe facilities were very good, clean, efficientConcert started 1 hour late - this is the reason I was less than satisified. I find this just plain unprofessional to start late. |
| More control from security. People standing on seats spoil it for everyone. There were only a few |
| More expierienced organizers should be involved or consulted in areas such as procedures, popularities etc.. Bigger open area to accomodate more audience is essential for allowing more opportunities as well as a lower price for those who are economically insuffient. Enough propaganda must be made overseas to give tourists a timetable and attract them to go for the Harbourfest. For the Hong Kong audience, investigate the taste and the timetable of them because they can't go there every or every other day even if the invited 'Stars' are their favourites. |
| more freedom to move and dance is essential at any concert and crucial for festivals. big problem in hong kong!!!!more world music. |
| More lesbians |
| More time required to properly book performers and promote the acts and festivals |
| most music was too main stream, mixing good bads with very mediocrenot enough standing only space - would improve atmosphere |
| Most performers attract foreigners only, especially Amercian. Local people show much lower interest. Th function is good but should not be organised and subsidered by Government. |
| Music much too loud. Two different performers on the same night not good if you only like one of them. Waiting time between two performers too long. |
| Must choose supporting act carefully. Never mix non-compatible performers together. Hate Lemon Tse and Pork Chop Yong which a Rock and Roll lover could never tolerate. |
| Must concentrate to hold 3 to 4 concerts, not too many concert in 4 weeks. |
| -My concern about Harbourfest being a venue to create a feel good atmosphere for the people of HK IS THAt for very many people in HK the ticket prices were too high -There seems to have been confusion as to whom Harbourfest was aimed -HK residents or over |
| My husband and I paid for tickets for all 3 concerts. We were furious to know that other people can get tickets free! It's ridiculous. It's a great venue, the stars are great. But I don't think the govt needed to use tax payers money to do it. We need help private organisers to be able to host these events e.g. assistance in giving them the venue, lifting noise control, etc. |
| My main issue is why didn't AMCHAM turn the organisation over to professionals, so that they could adopt an oversight role |
| My only complaint was the seating arrangement. I was in section 102, row k, seat 14. For the price of this ticket, this seat was terrible. You could barely see the performers on the stage. This was primarily because the view on the sides of the stage was blocked. I was very upset about this. Fortunately, I was able to slide into one of the sections in the center of the stage about twenty rows back. Then I could see great!! |
| Need better advertising with a longer lead up time.Need a ticketing system where you can choose laternative tickets not just what a computer sysytem deems the "best avalable". Look at the way Broadway.com asign tickets. |
| need better seating design, stage too low or use risers, too many people moving and standing, including on seats. Commercials were terrible, promotion on whole lacking, considering the resources of AmCham. Media was very hostile and didn't help to raise image of HK internationally. HK people very negative about doing anything new. Many ways to do it better but overall it was a good series and I would attend one next year. Need younger performers. Don't need to survey public for their performer approval - they are not organizers. Video/documentary can be very helpful long term when it is released. Short term could not possibly meet goals of increasing tourism - not enough time for people to plan to come. Festival is young and not a big reputation yet but if yearly event can become an established feature of HOng Kong. |
| Need more thime to promote and organiseLocal and international artists perform on different nights so that different age groups and cultural background and tastes can have a feast with nights of rest!Stage design can be modified so that most audience can see the performers rather than relying on the screen display |
| Needs longer promotion period, especially if targetting tourists --needs much longer time for their travel plans.Did not do enough promotion-- public did not know which performers for whatever dates-- we did not even know there is another performer on the same date before the Rolling Stones, therefore did not have a choice picking other dates. Also, a lot of people did not know the performance started an hour early-- no public annoucement -- not fair for the ones who missed it.Queing for entry was bad -- unneccessory long walk backwards and forwards before getting to the gates of which two out of three gates were almost empty.The two TV screens on the sides were much too small, then they added a centre one later which was better, but they were not even turned on for "Elvis" the performer before the Rolling Stones. So I do not even know how "Elvis" looks like -- seems very discriminating for him -- this is a very negative image for Hong Kong.On the whole, to start off the intention was good, but in the hands of the wrong people it made the intention turn the other way --- showed the world all the more how incompetent the government of Hong Kong is.From a helpless and heartbroken citizen who loves HK very much and would like to see HK revive quickly. |
| Needs private sector support not govt. The ABC TV special goes no way to justify subsidy, it's badly conceived. The Rockit festival is a better blue print. Maybe get western acts supporting chinese acts is a better way!! |
| Negative attitude from press and legislators. Like the opening of the airport in years to come this event will be seen as inspiring for HK and teething problems associated with the first event will pale into insignificance and be forgotten. |
| Negative publicity put people off attendingMore acts to be invited if it is to be an annual event |
| negative publisity, too many people being negative. |
| Next time, outsource the management to a proper entertainment company, not AmCham. |
| NIL |
| No comment. |
| No complaints about the music, but the organisation of these shows had many faults:- Not enough advance publicity.- Pricing structure wrong - only rear seats and those immediately in front of the stage sold well, leaving a big empty space between.- Stadium layout placed a tower in the middle where more good seats should have been (I know one is needed, but the location could have been further back).- Some bills mixed artists who would not appeal to the same group of fans.- At both the concerts I have attended so far, the show started while large numbers of people were still queuing to get in. Admission should have been speeded up.- Inadequate signage (slightly better the second time). Even when one found the right row, seat numbers were almost invisible in the dim lighting.- No announcement of the intermission, or how long it would last, or if one was made, it was long after the intermission had started.- Long stage setup time for Neil Young after Michelle Branch's appearance.- No advance notice of contingency plans in case of bad weather (I am going to see the Rolling Stones tonight, but don't know whether the show will go on as planned in case of heavy rain).- Insufficient public accountability for the taxpayer's money spent on the event.Furthermore, it is ridiculous to build a new temporary stadium for these shows when the (larger) Hong Kong Stadium could be used. Use of an existing venue would keep costs down.Having said all this, it is a real treat to see so many major international stars in Hong Kong, and Neil Young's performance was outstanding |
| No Problems, from the concerts I went to, the occassions were run very well. |
| no problems, great show. We got to dance for the first time ever at a Hong KOng show. The HK Coliseum was a terrible place to see Santana compared to this event. Neil Young was the best we have ever seen in Hong KOng and maybe one of the best live rock shows ever. We can't wait to see the Rollingstones tomorrow. |
| No wine for sale, only beer. Food was very poor. Badly organised catering |
| Not Enough Beer Stalls |
| Not enough promotional of the event and total disorganisation surrounding the whole event. But the fact that the artists were so good made up for it. |
| Not enough time to organise groups / friends to go to the concerts.Too much negative publicity.Too mnay negative comments in the press - although everyone I know who attended the concerts thoroughly enjoyed each and every show they went to!No ladies cocktails or wine offered for sale at the venue.Why aren't plastic bottles allowed in? Jugs of beer are sold in the venues. If anyone is going to throw anything - they'll throw it whether it's a plastic bottle or a jug. This annoys me about the Rubgy 7's. I have taken a flask of hot water for the last 17 years! This year I had problems taking it in. Tell the organisers to get a life!!!! Stop all the stupid red tape and let people enjoy themselves. If I want to take in a plastic bottle of something, why not? The organisers did not offer me anything I could drink. I don't drink beer or soft drinks. Either offer me what I want at a reasonable price (and Happy Hour was reasonable) or let me bring in what I want. |
| Now that I have attended one of the concerts I would absolutly love to go to more. The venue was the best with the music surrounded by the skyscrapers, but small enough to where you don't feel overwhelmed. This coming from a 43 year old. |
| Ogjective of the function is good but should not be subsidered by government. |
| One local artist was not suited for Sunday night's show.Music promoters should have been involved.Too ambitious for the organisational time frame.Finished too early.Too many allowed to take photographsNo children should be allowed |
| One of the best festivals I have ever attended anywhere. |
| Only a small percentage of HK citizens can enjoy these concerts because of the price tag. When you bunch so many top performers in one go, while we are very excited about all of them, you are expecting a small percentage of the population who can afford these concerts to fill the auditorium. It just won't happen. As a result, only legendary performers such as the Stones and Sultana are likely to give you a sale out. In addition, putting local performers and international performers of this calibre together is just bad news. The disparity between them in terms of voice, performance, general professionalism including technical support is just too great. While I feel our own should be promoted, it backfires when they end up looking bad in comparison, and, feeling bad that they are only treated as warm up artists. It has generated a lot of of betterness amongst the locals as we had seen. The audience for local artists are really quite different from those of international artists, esp. when the tickets are really quite expensive. Local kids just cannot afford to go. Kind of defeats the original purpose of the Fest.The concerts were brilliant. Very professional. Very organised. Nice welcoming faces at the site. Good experiences in all. |
| Only problem was the ridiculous catering facilities - huge queues for food and beer. COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE. |
| Opinion 1: It was a great event. It is much better to attend such events at Tamar Site than at the boring HKCEC.Opinion 2: It should be done again.Opinion 3: The Tamar site is an excellent location for an open air concert. It showcases the HK skyline wonderfully well.Suggestion 1: The publicity and stakeholder management needs to be organised better. Suggestion 2: Unfortunately, the event got a lot of negative publicity which is quite sad. Most of the people who criticised the event were trying to gain opportunistic leverage from it.Suggestion 3: There are lessons to be learnt from this event about how to manage such things in the future. I think HK should learn those lessons and put up an even better show next year, because HK has what it takes to do world class shows with world class performers at affordable prices. |
| Organisation was cahaotic: e.g. adding support band / changing start times at last minute; endless controversy over negotiations with Stones.Publicity was poor: we took friends visiting from Australia who had tried to find out about Harbourfest from HKTB but couldn't find anything.Queues for beer and toilet were far too long.BUT the venue was great (could it not have faced the sea? Can it not be made permanent?) and to see bands like Neil Young and the Stones for the first (and quite possibly only) time ever gave HK profile. It is valid for the government to spend reasonable money on making this happen if the private sector cannot. After all, every government and no doubt this one too, subsidises opera etc so why not more popular music? |
| Organisers communications were not good. People very confused about what is happening. Too many last minutes changes and little warning. |
| Overall a good event and an excellent idea |
| Overall it was one of the best organized events I have been to in Hong Kong. Most events in Hong Kong are very poorly organized and promoted. The local press and politicians have made a mockery of this city and demonstrated to the world that Hong Kong is any but "Asias World City". |
| Paid far too much for expensive seats that did not even face the stage!!!! Even the strangers around us were complaining to us about the same thing. $1288 per seat and you do not even face the stage!!!.The blue center seats were also not erected on a slope, like in a theatre, so that the seat behind is higher than the seat in front so that people in rows behind can see. So here, people behind the front row could not see. That is why we did not go to the other shows as only the seats far away were raised but the closer seats were not. Quite silly.We went to the Stones as we were told tht everyone had given up on using the blue seats on the wings (side of the stage but facing the wrong way) and they stood on the seats instead and then turned 45% to see the show. Anyone under 5ft 8 inches had to look at the screen - same as seeing the Stones at home on television - so the shorter people who paid a lot were annoyed. |
| Pathetic provision of beer stands - the queues were an hour long. I missed the first four songs as a result. |
| people need to be sold a product in hong kong. mostly hong kong is and has the worst live music in asia. no one visits and the public are geneerally not interested in it unkess it is 'sold' to them. better public relations and advertising could have clinched this concert. but low public interest and awareness and possibly cost of tickets will have effected the events proffitablity and hence ability to be repeated. all the performers were totally brilliant and performing at their peak , the sound quality was excellent and location couldnt be better. The catering was poor though reasonably priced for the crap that it was. The beer/ alhchohol was a chaotic and ridiculous exercise that needs reviewing. toilets were just acceptable. Seating was good but the actuall seats tjemselves were too small. If you pay 500+ dollars for a ticket and you are not thin , i think you would be angry. |
| people standing on seatswet seats |
| People were complaining for no reason in the papers! HK's economy gained far more than they lost with Harbourfest. |
| Performance by rolling stone was great. Hong Kong media should avoid giving too many negative comments on the event which are not fair to the organiser and not good to Hong Kong. |
| Perhaps more toilets should have been available.Better security- more thorough bag checks. |
| Perhaps not well organised, but HK media & Legco excessively critical. |
| personally I think the harbour fest was great, however for some local residents I can understand that they cannot afford to go to more than one show in such a short period.. Anyway it's difficult to please everyone, bravo for the organizers and keep it up. |
| Plan ahead and invite more musical talents from all over the world including those from the mainland to come and play so as to suit different peoples from all walk of life. Entrance fee should be set at a level that could attract majority of audience. Duration should not be too long. THree days to a week is good enough. |
| Please invite Westlife every year. |
| Pls dont do it again |
| Poor arrrangement at commencement of Rolling Stone in concert. Some said start at 1830 or 1930...I purchased ticket for Santana & Rolling Stone and I don;t like the local artisit but government put them together. |
| Poor crowd control, need more entrances/exits, poor punctuality of performers. |
| Poor management, no adequate promotion, conflict of interest of organizers, no accountability from government officials, pay too much for Rolling Stones, can be cheaper for local artists to attract PRC tourists, it is a shame for HK. |
| Poorly promoted. target market for these concerts are usually foreigners flying in to see Hong kOng |
| Press and politicians used a worthwhile event to support their negative attitude to life in general. |
| Press and various members of opposition government have simply complained about the organisation - they are no use to the recovery of Hong Kong.I think this is perfect use of a prime location in HK rather than it's normal use as a car park. Make it permanent.The government doesn't need to reclaim the harbour - just make better use of what is there rather than for car parks, helipads, etc.! |
| Prices are always a concern, you would not be paying $1988 in the UK to see the Rolling Stones.Earlier promotions would have been better to acheive better results in some performances. I am upset as I paid for $758 for Prince, great concert not disappointed. However to know later that HFest gave tickets out to public this was a concern. |
| Pricing is too expensive, should lower prices to attract more people to go to the show.The other alternative is to reduce # of seats to make it more cozy and so more people could see the stars at a closer distance. More publicity to overseas client. Well choice of artists, very good shows particurlarly Santana, Carreras, Gipsy King and the Rolling Stones. The venue is far much better than Exhibition Centre or the Colliseum. |
| Pricing made it more exclusive then it maybe should have been, but appreaciate the hard work that went into it and the result. Some of my most memorable nights in HK. |
| problem #1 great mismatch between opening act and head line , 1 hour wait betwen the 2 acts, or no opening act at all eg very poor Australian Elvis impersonator before the best rock band in the world. #2 very poor promotions eg Stones played to half a million ppl in Toronto last month, other top acts poorly attended #3 seating too wide = poor visibility from any side seat, should have extended the seating further back#4 HK people boycotted performances due to dislike of politics involved, makes HK look soooooo bad to the performers that they may not show up again , and looks bad to the world, we can't even draw a small audience from a city of 7.3 mil #5 the reputation of hongKong as a world city was diminished instead of being improved eg, we couldn't handle SARS and it is obvious why..we can't even handle a simple concert festival, total backfire.HK must hang its head in shame. not just politicians and promoters but the people for not supporting live music in their city |
| Problems :Location not so easy to get to.SuggestionsPromotion could be betterl publicised.Should have written or verbal programme before the start of the concert - total time, any intermission.Require more accessible location to buy drinks.Seats in the front sections should all be staggered, then we do not need to stand on our seats for about 2 hours to see the stage.OpinionIn spite of all this, the atmosphere was really good, and the Rolling Stones, specially Mick Jagger's performance was excellent. |
| Problems: NONESuggestions: Keep the venue as a permanent site, as it was fantastic. |
| promotion is not enough. |
| promotion of concerts was very bad - would have attended more concerts if I would have known the dates the artists were performing for example (or where to buy tickets!), by the time the promotion started it was too late.... |
| Promotion of Festival not vigorous enoughPromotion of local acts should have been more vigorous, so this is not see just as a gweilo concert!!! |
| Promotional and Advertisement are not enough. I knew the Harbour fest when negative news about tickets coming out on newsapapers!!!!It is a shame to Hong Kong because of negative news, poor reflection of audience in the fest. International stars may not come and performance again~~~ loss on Hong Kong people and music lovers~~~~ |
| Promotions, promotions, promotions!!! Particularly massive promotions in overseas for such big international event!!! I'm sure lots of people in the South East Asia region / Europe / North America / South America or any overseas Chinese / overseas Hong Kongers didn't know anything about this big and great event of Hong Kong. And I'm sure if they knew about it, they would probably make a special visit to Hong Kong and thus, the Hong Kong tourism could be promoted even more and better!!! Also, how about big posters and leaflets / flyers displaying in all hotels & motels in Hong Kong. Once again, I think it was a really GREAT event with good clauses. However, it should be handled by people who are EXPERIENCED in organizing events / concerts instead of those government and trade department officials!!! Also, the Hong Kong media and the press should be MORE SUPPORTIVE AND POSITIVE about this whole thing. After all, Hong Kong is still one of the BEST and INTERNATIONAL cities in the world and we have to do something to keep up with our image!!! |
| Putting 2 different performers into the same show is not appropriate. 2 different age groups of crowd is annoying. |
| Queues for drinks, especially beer, too long. |
| Sale of drinks was a disaster - the queues were too long. It took at least half an hour of queuing for a beer - it may have been longer but the lines put me off so I did not bother buying any. They need to get their act together and figure out how to sell drinks more efficiently especially when they do not allow you to bring in your own drinks and you are forced to buy from within the concert grounds. The layout of the seats for the concert was not optimal. There was a very wide gap between the top price tickets and the seats which were on an incline - waste of good viewing space! Also putting the lighting, music control technical stuff in the platform/tent in the middle in the front of the stage seemed a waste of prime space again. There should have been a longer "catwalk" so that performers could get closer and audience could get a better view. Seats were small and too close to each other. Smoking should not be allowed at all - people are too close to each other and are bothered by those who smoked.For certain performers like Santana and Rolling Stones, there should not be any seats and allow audience to stand - people just want to dance and enjoy the atmosphere and not be forced by the security guards to sit through out. For the Rolling Stones concert, all the audience in the expensive tickets in the front all stood on their chairs, so everyone else had to stand throughout or else you could not see the performers on stage. |
| SCMP newspaper gave constant negative press...I don't understand why...it was a wonderful series of top level entertainers. The press coverage was damaging and destructive |
| Seating - raised seating too far away from the more expensive seating so that the venue lacked atmosphere. Luckily I went on a near capacity night but still it was obvious. Stands should have raised from edges of expensive seating area (don't need wide expanses of concrete between each seating zone) like an amphitheatre to promote the atmosphere. Raised seating areas were just too spread out too. But views of stage were good and it is excellent to see a live band such as the Stones playing in Hong Kong. Fabulous. Please do it again next year, but redesign the venue and allow for people to stand up as they are going to do that anyway. Also, people cant afford to go to many acts on separate tickets so couldn't you introduce some sort of ticket which allows access to 3 or more gigs as a package which is value for money. But congratulations for having the vision to put on the Harbourfest - hope to see it again next year. |
| Seating arrangements extreemely poor. I am not interested to look at Hong Kong skyline and not the artists if I attend a concert and pay this kind of money for a ticket-very unprofessional arrangement.Toilet arrangements extreemely poor queeing etc.Long waiting time for refreshments.If having two prefermances the waiting time was to long between the two actsI have seen Rolling Sones a number of times and this concert was mainly to collect their money |
| Seating was terrible. People stadniong on their seats is absurd. This would never happen in Japan. I've seen The Rolling Stones 7 times since 1972 and this was the worst venue. The show was quite good, but the venue was terrible. For HK$2000, I couldn't see a thing, other than the video screens. I should have stayed home and wiated for the DVD. You have a lot to learn. |
| Seats too small for Gweilos |
| Security for Prince |
| Security was poor for the fisrt few shows, which disappointed people in a front row with $993 payment. Local players are not good enough at all to open for great musicains like, Prince, Santana & Rolling Stones. I am just wondering simply if HK Chinese appreciate this event? Even know who are they? |
| Security well handledSound a bit too low for a rock concert! [You can't usually speak to each other whilst its on - but had no problem doing so!!!!] |
| Seemed to take a long time for audience to get to their seats, although could be that most didn't allow enough time. |
| should be annual event |
| Should concentrate on international acts. No need to be that many acts for one event. People may only can afford one or two and 'sacrifice' the rest even though they are still interested to see. Forcus only on huge names e.g. Santana, Neil Young, Stones are good. |
| Should have more promotion channel thru TV, radio, bus-stop/MTR ads to drum up the attention amongst the public. Should also have promoted well in advance to foreign and HKG communities living in neighbouring cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Taipei, etc. |
| should have more time for preparation work, eg. like HK Arts festival taking more than half year to get ready and build up a mood , etc. Anyway, keep going, should not be disappointed by criticism. |
| Should have separate shows for local and foreign talents. The audience for them are rather different. |
| Should hold more, Blues, Fusion, Jazz, Rock and Classical concerts for all the local citizens in order they can select what they enjoy. |
| Should organize a different stage for local artists esp. those who can't perform "live" and had to use MMO (or even MMM). Also rock bands to go with rock bands, etc. |
| Shouldn't spent too much money on the Harbour Fest, I mean, not too much. And the ticket's price shouldn't be so expensive, cause not much people could really afford that. |
| shouldn't use taxpayers' money. should be a commercial venture participated by hk companies and not by the amcham!!! |
| Site does not and cannot offer standards to match the prices demanded. A proper indoor venue would be better. I believe one is to be built as part of the new development at the airport. The sooner the better.Poor catering, inadequate and disgusting toilets, over staffed security, cheap uncomfortable seats, poor seating layout, unrealistic pricing structure, ridiculous location of corporate hospitality (= less than 50% take-up). Site should have been configured by a more experienced operator......Technically - PA was under-specified and struggled with true rock & roll although coped better with Church/Carreras despite making Church sound on occasions like a strangled falsetto... Puting follow spots on central tower which was inadequately braced meant they wobbled like high tremulo...Marketing, for an event suppose to attract people back to HK, barely surfaced .........Sorry, been in the business 30+ years, Nice try organisers, but for that money you could have done one hell of a lot better......... |
| so far so good |
| Some media and legislators have turned this into a political event, and as a result created negative publicity to the Festival. Shame on them! |
| some of the concert shall be indoorworld class city, world class music slogan in targeted area |
| Some were too expensive. Local and international acts together is just stupid, what were they thinking. Nick Tse and Joey Yeung with The Stones, stupid stupid stupid. Please do not put this sad event on again. |
| Such programmes should be organised by experienced private organisations, in coordination with the Tourism Commission. Government should only provide support through means such as provision of free venue or facilitation of publicity, and not by substantial subsidy and active organisation. The programme this time has failed in meeting its original objectives in attracting tourists and enhancing the image of Hong Kong (actually it has done the contrary regarding our image) due to the poor organisation. |
| support to do morebut should not be governemt do all of themgovernemtn should be do as a sponser |
| Supporting acts - Tze & Joey were ABSOLUTELY irrelevant. Phoney singer (Tze) was offensive to the ears of avid Stones fans. After all, they were embassassed too ! |
| Take away all the seats, should have standing room only |
| The acts are great for me as a nostalgic old gweilo, but I think you need more Asian and contemporary talent for a really successful event.Also, I would like to see it organised as a proper music festival where you pay one price and see larger variety of acts on a whole day event. Also the 'famine or feast' experince in Hong Kong has to be addressed. For a long time we have few acts and suddenly we have so many. The ticket prices are perhaps resonable but it is difficult to afford the perfomaances in such a short space of time. Perhaps do somethign the autumn and others in the Spring. The venue is great but in the long term it would be best to have a partially covered fresh air music venue as part of the West Kowloon Arts and Cultural Centre when it gets built. Imagine enjoying music with the backdrop of Hong Kong Island behind. |
| The annual HK Arts Festival does an excellent job and could expand to cover the same performers as Harbour Fest using the Tamar venue. Secondly, there was too much negative unfair critisism of the organisers even though they were out of their depth and HK was already well into Post-SARS recovery anyway. |
| The artists at the Harbourfest will only appeal to a very small percentage of the people in Hong Kong. It needs to find other types of performers that will have a much wider appeal and price the tickets at an appropriate level. To ask people to pay more than $250 a seat for more than one concert in a month is unrealistic for most HK incomes. |
| The chaos and poor organisation at the early stage of the concerts indicated clearly the organisers were totally ignorant let alone inexperience in handling concert organisation. It is unclear, even up to now, who the concerts were for. If the organisers knew clearly their target audience, there could have been more focussed marketing and publicity to sell the concerts. Having 20-50% of the seats unfilled for many of the concerts featuring international artistes is clear indication of such failure. Having a mix of local young talents and singers appealing to those in their middle ages on the same stage indicates the organisers did not know anything about the entertment market.To appeal to a larger audience, singers better known to the public could have been approached, eg Whitney Huston, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Tom Jones, Rod Stewart, etc. In the three concerts I went to, the majority of people in the audience were non-Chinese. Where are the local Chinese? Are they not the focussed groups for these concerts? Where are the overseas visitors, I came across very few of them? Lead time from start of sale of tickets to actual concert dates were far too close. People in the neighbouring regions need time to schedule their visit to HK. There should have been at twelve to fifteen weeks' leadtime. On the other hand, the venue was excellent albeit too small for such concerts and the audion effects excellent. I wonder why we did not make use of the former Kaitak Airport site as it can certainly hold more people. All in all, the concerts themselves were excellent but the pre-concert publicity work and ticketing arrangements and choice and mix of artistes as well as the leadtime allowed for marketing very very poorly done. Am very disappointed with the organisers. |
| The concert I attended was only 40% full. Some 80% of the audience were foreigners. The show itself was extremely good - both the audience and the singers enjoyed the show. The concert environment was wonderful too. The only thing was that there was not enough promotion of the show beforehand and the fact that the show was only participated by a certain group of HK residents (mainly those in the upper class of the society) defeats the achievement of the objective of entertaining all HK residents. |
| The concert was excellent however I gave a rating of 70% due to the fact that we had a number of drunken yobos behind us ( local chinese I might add) who continually spilt beer all over us and our seats.It may be acceptable to serve copious quantities of beer at a sporting event however it is not acceptable to serve beer in such quantaties at a concert- even though it is held outdoors.Why don't they serve large jugs of beer at the next concert at the coliseum? Unless this ridiculous situation is rectified at the next outdoor concert neither I nor my friends will be attending regardless of the quality of the artists.Jugs of beer are for the football not concerts. |
| The concerts we attended were great. The organisation was smooth, the seats good, the performances excellent, the general crowd control was good (HK police and team did a great job of getting 13,000 people in and out of a small place). The setting was wonderful- where in the world could you listen to the best bands surrounded by such spectacular skyline?So why or why has all the press been so negative?I dont understand why more tickets didnt sell and can only say for our family that we would have liked to have seen more shows but in fact this was a busy time at work and socially and so had a number of prior engagements which prevented us seeing more. |
| The criticisms of the organisers are unfair. At least they are trying to do something for HK |
| The event has attracted a lot of needless adverse publicity from criticisms of the organisation, from people with self-interest as the driver. If LEGCO members etc put a fraction of the effort into Hong Kong and promoting the Harbourfest as the Stones put into their performance, Hong Kong would be far better off. |
| The event is a great idea, but need much more time for preparation and ticket sale. I particularly like the venue cos I can enjoy the marvellous cityscape and the concert at the same time. |
| The event was a great idea but not executed well from an organisational and promotional standpoint. I thoroughly approve of it and would like to see it continue to bring world class acts to HK. The biggest problems were that the event was not advertised and promoted at all well. It was supposed to attract visitors to HK but no promotion was done outside HK as far I am aware. Also, many people did not know how to get hold of tickets in HK. When i tried to get tickets online for the Stones, the website was totally overloaded and my order terminated. i then couldn't get back online for hours and the hotline was permanently engaged so i couldn't find out what had happened to my order. when i finally got throught to the hotline, the tickets i had wanted were gone. The HKTicketing site was abysmal. When i first heard that Neil Young was coming to HK, I was told to go to the website. There was nothing at all about Neil Young on the first page and no obvious way to find the information until I searched on the name. So if you didn't already know he was coming, you would have never found out just by going to HKTicketing. And i never saw any ads for his concert at all. A real shambles |
| The events should be done by private sectors.The government has not done a good job in promoting the events.The government should not pick up the pieces when the events make a loss.The events could be organised annually by private sectors, not the government. |
| The first concert I went was on 1st Nov 2003 but I found the security guards were quite rude in requesting me to open my bag to see if there's any water bottle inside. And the crowd control by the police force was in a mess. We had to queue up outside for about half an hour while the show had already begun with Andy Hui performing on stage. I don't see why the organizer had to invite Andy Hui to perform coz' there's certainly a lack of respect for him. The people were not fully seated and many of them were from abroad who didn't know much about Andy. Another problem with the concerts was that too much time was spent on setting up the musical equipments. More than half an hour was spent on setting up in-between the performances of Michelle Branch and Neil Young. The sound effect on the part of Michelle Branch was certainly not good and I am not so sure whether the organizer or the artist should be held responsible for that (and also, the lighting system was really outdated). But the security guards' attitude was greatly improved on 6th and more female staff was employed. The attendance rate was about 40% and I feel that the pricing system should be reviewed / eliminated in this circumstance. Other more popular artists should be considered to be invited to perform in HK next time, or maybe once again, Santana. The attendance rate was impressive. |
| The Harbour Fest is great - what is wrong is the local press and second rate politicians trying to score points by being critical. Most of these people contribute nothing to Hong Kong -all they do is moan. |
| The Harbourfest concept was a great idea. The main problems were inexpert promotion of the different concerts so that they did not get enough publicity and a destructive media and politicians more interested in stirring up controversy than extolling the positive aspects. |
| The host of performers could have included musicians from different backgrounds. For instance, I like Jazz but I don't see any Jazz musicians performing for this fest. The fest should have consulted the public to find out where their taste of music lies. |
| the idea is good but the organisation has been poor. i was only interested in the one concert which i attended. there was a doubt about the attendance of the stones until the very last minute blamed on the organisers by a stones spoksman. the venue was ok but far from ideal. on the expensive level where we were we had to stand for the entire perfomance in order to see. the combination of artists was not well thought out; the warm-up acts for the stones were an irrelevance. i might have gone to see jose carreras but was not interested in seeing charlotte church. whilst the venue was not ideal it was much better than the hkc&ec which i will not go to under any circumstances having been so disappointed twice having paid quite a lot of money for tickets and emphasises our lack of a venue for major entertainment events. and the govt is going to manage with our existing facilities for the east asian games?? |
| The idea of the Harbest Fest is excellent but at least more time are needed to properly promote the shows to the right audiences. Looking forward to more shows next year. |
| The intermition was too long. Many people getting drunk. Michelle Branch should perform longer. |
| The line ups to buy beer were too long. Don't the promoters want to make more money? People would have liked to drink more beer and why not? It is not just a concert, its a party. |
| The local audience doesn't have the appreciation for truly great international acts. If John Lennon and George Harrison came back from the dead, you couldn't have sold out the Beetles. But you could sell Eason Cheng for five nights straight! |
| The local audience's taste is too localized on local (or say, Pacific Rim)popstars. Maybe this is the problem of the education system as students only concentrated on exams and marks without diversifying their interest. Or the audiences only like "Japanese Stye" concerts. They like performance, but not 'music'.I think only a few groups of the expatriates, the middle class and/or the wealthier class is benefited from the Harbourfest as the shows are their cup of tea (but not the local audiences.) |
| The local press was too negative and did not reflect how much fun people had at the concerts. |
| The main problem for me was being able to afford to go to more concerts.I did not like the negative journalism |
| The major drawback is whether we really did promote HK thru this activity? Did we attract vistors from other countries?All I saw in the shows are locals, so had this objective been achieved?????Don't waste our tax payer hard earn money. |
| The organisation of the event left a lot to be desired - in particular the announcement of the acts before they were actually confirmed! The badly handled arrangements for the Stones concerts in particular - the news that they had pulled out then the later news that the concerts would go ahead etc. - I was trying to plan a trip to England around that time and it was very stressful not knowing when and if the Stones would be playing. I half expected it to be cancelled until the minute they walked on stage.The idea of mixing local acts and major international stars was an interesting one but from what I heard, in practice didn't really work! I certainly didn't want to see Nicholas Tse on Sunday and I doubt many others in that particular audience wanted to either! Who decided which local acts appeared with the international acts?! They obviously didn't know their music!The venue was fantastic - by far the best setting for a concert like this that I have been to in HK other than BB King (1993?) at the Ko Shan Theatre, Kowloon. If a permanent venue could be placed alongside the harbour where the audience can enjoy a drink and dance (something you are discouraged from doing at most HK venues) HK is certain to attract more attention from major musicians and bands when they go on tour and more HK people are going to want to attend such concerts. All of which would put 'Hong Kong on the map' so to speak and encourage tourism! I heard of several people who were visiting HK this weekend to see The Stones. The old Kai Tak Airport is one possibility for the building of a new stadium but the old Tamar site was perfect and most importantly, not near residential buildings - which rules out any acts like the Stones at the HK Stadium! In fact it more or less rules anything out and it has become a huge 'white elephant' which is a shame as it is a very good stadium and most people in HK live with noise pollution so I don't see that concerts held there would create any further disturbance to people living on Broadwood Road etc.!Money should be invested in arranging a more permanent site - preferably one that is outdoors but which can be utilised in all weather i.e. with some kind of suitable covering if inclement weather occurs. The HKCEC lacks ambience and is not so inviting as the Tamar Site.I hope that this is of some use to you. |
| The organization didn't understand what type of artist is suitable for H.K. So we ended up embarrassing ourselve, by not filling the seats. Because it indicated we don't appreciate, or artless for foreign artists. Speaking from a person who enjoy foreign music, I rather they not come.The ticket is way too expensive. Why Toronto charged cad20. for Rolling Stone, also to celebrete recovering of SARS?! |
| The people in Hong Kong don't know how to behave at a concert. The people seated directly in front of us asked the people in front of them to sit down. This was at the Stones concert...relax Hong Kong and learn to enjoy the greater sides of life! |
| The people tasked with the job of organising Harbourfest lacked the experience and skill to organise this type of complex event. |
| The performing time of each performer is not long enough, just only 90-100mins is not enough, becuz I know those performers will last for at least 120mins on the other countries. |
| The press coverage has been disgraceful until the Rolling Stones concert. Its a great idea, executed with very little time and no support from the HK government. The only contribution the government and press have made is negative critiscism. |
| The press has been extremley neagative in their covergae calling the event a fiascoe. However, every concert I have attended has been an exciting time, in an amazing venue. It proves the press are wrong and Harbour Fest has set out to achieve it's aims of making HK feel good. |
| The Press hurt - what turned out to be a great event - the aura of the event. Also, tickets tended to be over-priced and thus execluded the average HKer. |
| The press was very bad, and damaged HK.Legco members also criticised unreasonably. |
| The press were very negative, which was quite unjustified |
| The promotion and management was complete rubbish.Mike Rowse and Jim Thompson should both be held acccountable.It is only the performers that saved the day. |
| The promotion is bad. Ticketing selling points are limited, should be sold in URTBIX outlets also. Too many seats for the most expensive tickets. However, the venue is great. The production is also great for the three concerts I have attended: Air Supply, Santana and Rolling Stones. |
| The promotion was almost non-existent. I never even knew that HK Harbour Fest existed until I saw the controversy on the local TV news.But I do really agree that having more international performers of the quality of the Rolling Stones is a terrific idea and HK Harbour Fest should become an annual event, with international performers coming from all over the world every year. I think it will eventually be very popular. |
| The promotion wasn't enough to address the public |
| the quality of the toilet facilities was poor. |
| The reason I do not like the idea of local and international artist performing on the same stage is that if you do not know any local artist (such as myself) then having purchased a ticket for that concert night, then I'm not getting my money's worth. Also perhaps the organising of artist could have been better, I attended the Michelle Branch and Neil Young concert. Michelle Branch is 20 and Neil Young is 60+ - they have a very different fan base and I had to sit through a load of moaning and complaining throughout Michelle Branch's performance from a bunch of grandads and grandmas behind me who didn't appreciate any kind of modern music. Whilst I did purchase the ticket to see Michelle Branch, I did also enjoy Neil Young's performance as well.I think the entire Harbourfest event could have been a lot more successful (in terms of attendence) if there were more promotions such as TV advertising, billboards etc. I think a lot of people did not know which performers were coming and when. |
| The Rolling Stones should have played until 11:00 pm (just 15 minutes more) and I would be total happy for the price I paid for my ticket. I would like the concerts spread out more as it is hard to go to so many in a short time. |
| The Rolling Stones were brilliant. An absolutely fantastic event. Do it again! |
| The seating was my only criticism. I had to stand on my chair at each concert I attended which is ridiculous. Also, there was not enough security to stop people charging down to the front of the stage which was the main reason we all had to stand on our chairs. Next time, bank the seating |
| The show didn't start on time. It delayed over half an hour. i didn;t know the local singers performed before eight. so I missed part of the show. |
| the show really super good...... |
| The shows worth every penny spent. |
| the sitting plan is no good. i was sitting far behind even though i paid $1288. |
| The sound system was poor with it being difficult at times to hear the lead singer. |
| The sound was ok, but could be improved |
| The sound was ok, but could be improved |
| The stadium should not have been all seating. Hardly anyone wanted to sit down and most people ended up standing on their seats. |
| The stage area was small and if there was I wish the singer would walk around the seating areas. I wanted to ask if there were any autographs we could get from the singer? Just asking. |
| The stage could be bigger. The shows could be longer. And the singers should sing at least two more songs at the request of fans when the show is getting at the end. But this time, they sing only one song to satisfy them. And I think it is not enough. |
| The stage was modified for the Rolling Stones, which meant that I could see well when the performers moved the full width of the stage, however when seeing Carrerras and Church, I was very disappointed to have paid 2nd top price and have such a poor view. The diagram of the seating arrangement was not accurate, making the stage appear to be wider than it was.The venue for loud concerts was good, but I found the road noise a distraction for the quieter one. The issue of 'What happens when it rains' was not answered for me when I asked at the booking office. The venue was great on a dry night, but I would not have been impressed if it was wet.For concerts like the Rolling Stones, everyone stood on the seats and I wondered why they were there in the first place. Perhaps it would have been better to just have a free standing place at one price instead of seating. |
| The Stones show is the most expensive one I ever have. Although I am willing to pay for it as a consumer, I am really angry for the subsidy (or underwriting to be exact) generously given out by the Government.Like most ordinary Hong Kong citizen, over 90% of my friends and relatives don't know who the Rolling Stones are, let alone buying a ticket for the show. Therefore, most of the audience last night were Westerners and therefore most likely are not HK citizen or taxpayer. Therefore, what I had done is to subsidy for a show which is loss making and the shortfall is going to made by Hong Kong taxpayers. At the same time, majority of the audience are not local taxpayer. Am I making myself a fool? If the Government really what to boost up the economy of Hong Kong and want to sponsor/underwrite a show like the Habour Feast, I hope that the subsidy will go to local production houses and artists. This will ensure the money can be earned by local taxpayers and eventually spend in Hong Kong.l |
| The Stones were great - legends come to Hong kongMany of the criticisms of the Harbourfest seemed unreasonable - just criticising for the sake of it. |
| The ticket are way too expensive! |
| The tickets should be a bit cheaper |
| the time between each show is too close. Make it longer, and the 'fest' can last for longer, no need to pay so much fees in a time! |
| The venue has been spectacular, and I've not been to another concert where you are in the middle of the city, and in an open-forum. A real shame that there has been such negativity, when every concert I've been to has been absolutely brilliant. In the UK or the US, for the same price, you would be miles back, and unable to see the stage or the performers |
| The venue is dreadful. Hongkong badly needs a descent venue for this sort of concert. It was difficult to see without tiered seating. |
| The venue is excellent. Open air amongst the skyscrapers gives the concert a unique Hong Kong flavour.Performers were top rate.Ticket prices are too high for concerts that are being subsidized by the government.Need more ticket agents - possibly sell tickets on-lineThe organizers of harbourfest made HK look like a joke - organizers definitely need to open their accounting books.The T.V. ads promoting HF were truly poor - making HK look third rate |
| The venue is great - hugely better than the Convention Centre. The time of year meant that the weather was perfect (I just do not like Neil Young's music). The venue was over half empty which showed that the market research may not have been accurate, the publicity too little too late, the ticket prices too high for the targeted audience (I am unemployed) in the current economic climate. However, I really hope this continues as an annual event, with lessons learned from this year and a more diverse spread of artists from East and West. |
| The venue is terrific and should remain a performance venue - no more talk of wearing gloves by the senseless residents of Happy Valley. Get back the top acts on a regular basis - make HK a world city. |
| There is far too much negetive press about the event which has put people off going. Free tickets should not be allowed, a nominal fee could be charged in relevant cases. |
| There is little or none promotion/advertisement in Chinese media.Tickets are not available through the normal channels that we get concert tickets such as Ticket Master, Tom Lee, etc.Should not mix local and international entertainers because they have different groups of audience.The entrances are not very convenient, there should be more entrances so that we do not have to wait outside for a long period of time (not the Rolling Stones show but the Jose Carrerra show). |
| There is too much negative reporting on local newspaper, especially for those not seeing the harbour fest. Those saying negatvie things should have a look on the performance before they form any opinion. |
| There should be a flat fee for such concerts, no seat numbers and a "first come closer to stage" system. No seats in front of the stage. Let people who want to dance dance in front of the stage and those who want to sit watch it from the ranks. There were few of the expensive seats near the stage occupied, resulting in a huge empty space between those people near the stage and the rest. It is also not fair to the performers if the people in front of the stage cosists mainly of folks that received their tickets as corporate give-aways; no good concert feeling will result from a largely passive crowd in front of the stage since a rock concert is very interactive and lives from crowd feedback.The auditorium was too wide in relation to the stage and the general layout of the facilities was terrible!The promotion was extremly dissapointing. There should be co-operation with airlines to bring visitors from the region to such an event. The internet was hardly used to promote the venue, a web site with photos, clips or videos of the performers should be created and properly advertised. |
| There should be a venue capable of housing international stars when they come through Asia to stop in HK. The open air venue is excellentGreat site for a venue like this.Should have had Top Stars from Asian Countries as well. |
| There should be more sponsors to finance those audience who can't afford it and get get to chance to see the show. People should learn what Music is. |
| There should be more things such as street fairs, food venues and local cultural activities co-promoted iwith the harborfest. |
| There were too many concerts within too short a time span. So many concerts within such a short time span is prohibitively expensive for a large proportion of Hong Kongs population. Spead over a few months, I believe that the concerts would have achieved 100% patronage. With a longer promotion period, more overseas fans (tourists) would have had time to plan a holiday to Hong Kong whilst taking in a concert too. |
| These programs should be organised by private sector.The government has not done sufficient work to promote the events.These events could be held annually by the private sectors, not the government.The government should not pick up the pieces when the events make a loss.More staff should be added to improve the operation (order) on site. |
| they should not allow smoking in the stands, very uncomfortable and unfair for those who don't smoke, a very crowded environment and smokers should have to move to smoke |
| This harbour festival has to be carried out in future, on a yearly basic. |
| This is a very good initiative.But must be better promoted,and the local media must try toi be posetive instead of try to find all the negative things to write about.The only negative thing we experienced during the concerts was too few bars,the waiting time to buy a beer was much too long.Why do they use 50 liter barrels instead of big tank waggons.AMCham should also have asked for local expertice to join.Also we as expats have lot of people who could contribute. |
| This is an event that we should hold each year. The people have done the best to make this event. The media is very negative to this, but not Hong Kong people. |
| This is great initiative. I have really enjoyed the three concerts I attended and I wish I had gone to more. We need high profile events like this. |
| This one one of the best events ever in Hong Kong. Much better organized that other Hong Kong events. My hats off to the organizers. |
| This should be an annual event |
| This was a great idea. It's only natural that in the first year there will be some problems, but over all I was impressed with the quality of the artists brought in, with the fact that they shared the stage with some of our local stars, and with the overall facilities and presentation. I hope this becomes an annual event. |
| this was organised too quickly and promoted poorly. It was a great idea, but should have been planned further in advancce - eg - the organisers should be planning now for next year like they do with the Arts Festival. The venue was great - the backdrop off the city was superb and the facilities quite adequate. |
| those Hong Kong singers suck! fuck off, they are such an annoyance. I just wanna see western singers |
| Though local singers tried very hard, arrangement for them is enbarrassing, not quite a formal performance but prelude only. If it's a co-performance, better show more respect to them.It's supposed to be a great show, 2 areas to improved (1) the publicity is really weak (2) too much bad PR. |
| Tickets cheaper, More acts per day like the Familyfest. Different genres of music on different nights/days |
| To build on the Tamar site a permanent state-of-the-arts venue for this type of international sports / arts / entertainment performances.Il could also become an architectural icon for Hong Kong, like the Sydney Opera. |
| To improve the quality, one should slect 'real quality' preformers only |
| To stage such annual events as the harbour fest is a good idea to enhance the spectrum of cultural programs in HKG, as well as promote the image of HKG as a place with a big variety of entertainment. What is lacking is the promotion in the media to attract more people. |
| toilet & drinks queue too long. Should provide more garbage bins near the seats. Local sound engineer sucks. The int'l performers sound better coz their sound engineers are better. |
| Toilet facilities totally inadequate! Get some wellknown/popular groups...the Stones are truly international,but most of the others aren't,and some well past their sell-by date,eg Prince....better to have fewer but top acts than more but second-rate ones. |
| Toilets inadequate. Entry to venue crowded & inconvenient. |
| too ambitious, Stones + Santana alone would acheive objective which was not a local feel good factor for hk residents but to overcome the previous bad press for the sars cancellations of their previous shows, |
| too confusing to buy drinks/food etc |
| Too expensive for many local people. Why should so many locals be cut out of the "feel good" events?Except for the Stones concert, doors opened to let the crowd in very late, and there was only one entrance. Very good crowd control, but not a "feel good" beginning to the evenings.The performers seemed to appeal mainly to older people. Maybe a better balance of artists could be achieved.Advertising could have been better. |
| Too expensive for the man in the street. good concept but lousy execution, administration and promotion. Eg the local act for Santana was not advertised. We would have liked to watch Any Hui. From the start, whether a concert will be a sell out or not, a number of tickets should have been given out via a raffle, contestants can ONLY use an EDS kiosk to log in and tickets have to picked up at the Harbour Fest booth with an ID card. This will control that the winner is a genuine fan and not a ticket tout. The idea to be available at EDS kiosk ONLY is, so that the man in the street stands a chance of going. People who have loads of $ will not have the time or cabnnot be bothered to hop done to a public booth. |
| Too many artist packed in such a short period, may be 3-4 artists as the maximum. May be a good idea to mix local and foreign singer in a one night gig. |
| Too many events - most people will only pick 2 or 3 maximum. I would have been better to have a couple of really good acts each week (say Friday and Saturday evenings) plus day time at the weekands for family events. |
| Too many free tickets.No security to stop those who paid 300 from taken a more expensive seat.Toilet facilities where very very bad. Not displaying a good clean environment. |
| too many free tickets; poor promotion hk/overseas; poor qty local performers; poor stage set up/sound lighting; poor facilities; too much negative press; lack of community spirit local/expat; poor govt handling - waste of public funds.... list goes on: otherwise great success - lets do it wright next year! |
| Too many people involved at the front line who had no or little experience with no leadership to guide them. Should have used an international reputable R&R/festival promoter to advise/manage the event i.e Harvey Goldsmith. Advertising was nowhere for a long time and late in coming. Where were the poster sites? Auditorium could be better laid out. The media are a disgrace constantly drumming up drama after drama giving people only one impression. Where did the so called "public dissent" come from? Mistakes were made. Now we live and learn, move on and do it beter next time. Don't make it 3 weeks - 10 days max. Start with a weekend and end with a weekend. Headline Asian acts and Western acts seperately. Utilise the space all day on the weekends. Get sponsorship - HK loves a sponsor. Promote it like hell! All that said - well done for a first time. It's not easy and given the time to produce it was fantastic. |
| too many shows in a short period, ticket price too high not many people can afford in such bad economic situation. shows like the "santana" and the "rolling stones" could be put in places like out "football stadium" or horse racing ground in shatin so that can be allowing more audience in order to reduce the price of tickets. |
| Too much criticism. This was a great series of concerts in a convenient and pleasant location. Hong Kong people should be grateful to have had this opportunity. |
| Too much negative criticism from the MEDIA and particularly from LEGCO members who should have promoted the idea rather than constantly complain.HF could have achieved more without the negativity from some quartersLocal and International artists appearing on the same stage will work IF the medium of entertainment is English or Cantonese throughout, rather than half and half.There should be more promotional material for all events (includes APA, Cultural Center, City Hall etc) in English. |
| Too much negative publicity in the media. |
| Unfair publicity resulted in few sponsorships leaving the HK Government to subsidize the event. Musical festivals (Newport Jazz Festival, etc) are dependent on sponsorship frm businesses but the one-sided and very unfair reporting from the SCMP made businesses reluctant to be associated with this event. Hong Kong is the poorer for this. |
| Unforgettable "once in a lifetime" expierience |
| Very Bad Promotion - No Advertising. more cheaper tickets. Use more experienced promoters to take care of Interviews etc. |
| Very good idea with a Harbour Fest. Should properly had more time to prepare but a good result looking at the total picture. I am looking forward to go again next year. I had a seat in area 312. Very close to me where the people in area 6xx. Thier seats were in the right direction to the stage and I was setting in a strange position. I was quite disappointed as I paid more than double but I guess they had a better seat. Some of the persons in the area in front of me had a even worse direction to the stage and I guess the areas should not be rated so high. |
| Very poor management and promotion. If the show was organized by professionals, the result would have been different and more people could have enjoyed a show of international standard. |
| Very unhappy about the 1 hour wait between "Elvis" preformer and The Stones. |
| Very upset with the negative media reporting;Very surprised at the reason for TVB to refuse broadcasting promotional material for the event as API. |
| view of the main screen blocked by the speakers at the sidelocal singers should not be mixed with western singersrolling stones' encore far too shortbetter singers should be invited eg The Shadows, Cliff Richard, Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys, Tom Jones, The Ventures, Vanessa Mae, Moody Blues, Chicago, Leo Sayer, Earth, wind and Fire, Paul MacCartney, instead of Neil Young`. Many people left because of their noisy heavy metal music.Music too loud at distortion level at Neil young concert and Air supply's. |
| Visual effect / screens should have been larger and tilted or added for the viewers on the side seats. The lighting could have been better (too dark on the side stage) |
| wait too long for purchasing carlsberg beer - half an hour.Quiet unbelievable when purchasing tickets for prince on the first day of selling. The lady behing the counter said that all first nine rows were full, so i got the 10th row and just one day before the concert, free tickets were given out and guess what? They were seats on the 4th row. This is extremely unfair. |
| Was disappointed to find that at three of the concerts out of four that I went to merchandise was already sold out and at the fourth wasn't even on offer! |
| we need a decent permanent venue but I think the organisers showed great courage and did a fine job |
| Weather contingencies |
| Well done to the organisers who had such a short time to bring this festival together. Hong Kong should learn to give more praise instead of unqualified critisim. The old adage is we learn by our mistakes and future festivals like this will be a big draw for tourists and residents alike. Events like this can cetrtainly be a winner for Hong Kong if positive attitudes are adopted and not over shadowed by short sightedness and easy critism. |
| Well done to the organizers in putting so much together in such a short time. Hope that the criticism (a lot of it unwarranted) does stop an event like this being put on in the future. |
| were performers a good choice for the local people of HK?price |
| Whilst I enjoy the local artists, I think the local artists and the international artists appeal to difference type of audience. It may be therefore better to have separate concerts for international artists and canton-pop artists. |
| Why should the HKSAR Government have to orgainise the Harbour Fest every year?? It's talking about taxpayers' money and most importantly, it's not a profitable event (well... may be in future years). Personally, I don't see the Governement should, by itself, organise this event every year.Anyway, I think it's a good idea to organise Harbour Fest every year. But the Government can become one of the sponsers that only have to contribute a fixed sum. And the Harbour Fest does not have to have so many performers... it's a bit too many this year |
| Wish there had been more local support for the concept instead of finger pointing and complaining. The festival would have more than achieved its goal of promoting HK internationally if not for all of the negative publicity brought on by the narrow minded, short sighted complainers. We should give praise to those who came up with the concept and acted on the idea. |
| 下次應參考藝術節的推廣手法和時間表 |
| 不知是屬於何類音樂會或演唱會或派對或狂野或．．．．．．不倫不類差過四不像。 |
| 不應短期內舉行過多演唱會，像我這類學生不可能於數周花費過多金錢於是次演唱會。而且開始售票日的宣傳亦不足，令我遲了買門票，錯過數場演唱會。並且亦沒有足夠介紹每位歌手，有些如Neil Young, Prince等較久遠的老牌歌手跟本很少年輕人會認識。 |
| 太少廁所,d椅濕左冇人理會,又話7點開始,等到7:30先有本地歌手,但本地歌手得30分鐘,每人得15分鐘,本地歌手表演時,燈光又不是全開,中間大電視又唔開,再等到8:45先正式到rolling stone..... |
| 可否有更多樣化表演呢? |
| 只要演出者吸引(如Rolling Stones這般重量級)，有適當宣傳配合，知音者便會前來我理得你乜野「維港巨星匯」，演出者最重要 |
| 巨星匯的意念, 大部份演出及場地設施都有很高水準, 只是管理方面出問題及被傳媒針對性負面報道才未能完全成功\, 希望來年再有這麼多演出看便好了...... |
| 本人認為演唱會的是非不重要,最重要為哪一樂隊表演,表演氣氛,質素, 不要執著於小問題上,應以欣賞角度看,這比較正面。 |
| 用如此龐大公帑邀請這些不太知名又out的外國歌手,樂隊不值得, 主辮機構及公關公司又唔專業, 使整個show一糊塗, 又令人有私相授受感覺, 樂壇演唱會攪手多的是, 唔明點解要搵D咁公司做, 又唔專業又御搏. |
| 各演出者的演出時間極不平均。像11月6日那一場，Michelle Branch只演出半小時，而Neil Young則演出超過一個半小時。由於本人是因為前者才購買門票入場的，所以有受騙的感覺。希望有關當日將來有機會再舉辦同一類活動的時候能清楚說明各演出者的表演時間。另外，本人覺得今次活動的演出場地選擇得非常不適當。不但在天橋可以觀賞到演唱會，連站在門外圍欄的人都可以看到舞台正中。那對有買票入場的觀眾不公平。 |
| 好大喜功\、安排倉促、經驗不足、浪費公帑 |
| 如所獲得的贈券座位不佳(較遠),絕不會去. 但因贈券座位佳,所以才去.因為不知"滾石"樂隊是誰及其名曲.但見現場氣份很好,因外籍人士較多及全場滿座. |
| 我本身是香港人，但是大部份香港市民，都會認為這次演唱會的票價過高。但其實在外國要看這類型的演唱會，比起香港的票價是高很多，在美國看這類型演唱會的票價，大約是要$250美元，而大多數香港歌手的演唱會票價，都只是平均$300港元，所以是有很多香港市民是誤解了票價。不過說真，香港政府這次的確是做錯了很多地方。他高估了香港市民對外國音樂的興趣，而且又經驗不足，浪費了市民的血汗錢，一邊又話財赤，但又大量浪費金錢，真是不明白，被美國商會這樣玩政府，他們的知慧真是去了那裹？但我本身是只聽外國音樂，不會聽本地音樂的。但我覺得一億來開這次維港巨星匯 ，其實都不是太貴。每年日本所舉行的大型演唱會，例如SUMMER SONIC、FUJI ROCK，所用的費用比起維港巨星匯，還要高出很多倍。不過他們是商界自行舉辦，當地政府是沒有參與的。但總事件來講，這次香港政府，寧送錢給外人，都不留自己人。一定要有人須要負責。 |
| 我喜歡本地及國際表演者同台演出的構思，但今次只是表演者在不同時段使用舞台，失卻音樂交流的本意。香港政府應該有能力(包括硬件及軟件)每年舉辦類似「維港巨星匯」的音樂活動向外推廣香港的正面形象，向內則提升港人作為國際大都會居民應有的文化水平，但一定要有很好的配套，如連結相關的旅遊項目和大力推廣宣傳。 |
| 我認為呢個music festival o既idea係好好, 而我睇o既兩場演出都非常之好(特別係prince o既一場), 根本成個production 都無問題, 最有問題o既係o的記者寫衰曬, 今次請o黎o既artist都係外國好受歡迎o既, 但係就俾佢\地寫到無人去睇, 無人欣賞, 我真係對佢\地o既報導極不滿, 因為跟本反映唔到事實, 例如prince當日o既live大多數都係foriegner去睇, 個opening guest佢\地根本就唔識, 之後o既報紙就話個show一個鐘之後都係得三成入座率, 但係事實係仲有好多好多人係去o左買啤酒同sovenir.另外我都唔係咁喜歡有本地o既artist做opening guest, 因為佢\地o既級數唔應該同外國o既artist放埋一齊. |
| 我覺得今次巨星匯是一個很好的機會給我們欣賞到外國歌手的演出但由於主辦單位的問題,我覺得今次的show簡直是不知所謂首先是個舞台及座位設計問題,添馬覽太大了,用一面台的話,舞台與外圍的座位的距離十分遠.聽眾們根本完全地睇唔到歌手的影子,感覺唔到自己是參與其中,十分無奈.因為這個問題,有很多聽眾寧願站在前排座位和外圍座位之間的通道看.我覺得這樣十分不公平,因為買$488&$258的票也是一樣,那麼我買$488的票幹嗎??之後,這次show的特色之一是讓本地及國際表演者同台演出.他們真的是用同一個台演出,但這並不是我們所要的.我覺得要加插一par是讓這些歌手能一同合作表演.我非常不滿的就是為何無位歌手的表演時間的長度都不同,有些多有些少,是否有些不公平???我些原因令到我覺得看歌手的個人演唱會還好.這樣至少不會覺得掃興,而且一定是自己喜歡的歌手.就好似我看這場為例,michelle 只是唱了30-45mins,但neil 就唱了60-90mins.令我在後半部感到十分苦悶.(並不是因為neil的表演不好)我覺得這次show的目標-為香港市民提供高水平的國際級娛樂盛事是完全達唔到,反而出現反效果.首先因為入座率低,觀眾反應不熱烈(因為大部份觀眾都是拿贈票),有不公平的情況出現等等.....這些都給歌手一個不好的印象,令他們不敢再次參與類似活動我是十分喜歡這次show的構思的,而且想來年亦能參與類似活動不過主辦單位一定要做好準備措施,不能再犯同樣的錯誤 |
| 我覺得場地保安不夠完善,涉及歧視成份,尤其是入口保安.當日我與妹妹一同入場,我妹妹帶了一支膠樽裝的水,保安要求拿走,但入口所列之違禁品並沒列明,另外入場後,竟發現在我身旁的外藉人士拿著一支膠樽裝的水,也沒有保安沒收,我覺得他們做法不當.另外,中場休息時間太長,要等足45分鐘才再開始,讓觀眾白等. |
| 每年政府都要舉辦一次維港巨匯, 在添馬艦舉行真好,整個舞台設計很好,感覺好像置身在Centrak Park,沒有座椅更好,載歌載舞,在商業區演出音響不會影響別人,很好.但洗手間不足夠,因聽眾飲了大量啤酒,常常去洗手間,結果要排長龍. 總括來說,每年政府都請不同天皇巨星,除了外國歌星外,還耍請曰本歌星,台灣歌星,如蔡琴等就好了. |
| 其實有如此superstar 到港表演，實是好事，當日的確感到香港是國際大都會。可惜那些所謂crossover實浪費大家時間及金錢，覺得不能物超所值，而且宣傳實在做得太差。我們身在香港，但竟是透過Neil Young的網頁才知他到港開演唱會。再者，主辦單位真的要定出每一場的目標觀眾，再作出適當宣傳，不可能貪心的想在一場中滿足不同的人，這只會吃力不討好，。另外，這樣的大製作，兩年一次就好了。 |
| 明年見 |
| 表演者出色落力，音響非常好，唯推廣主辦十分無知，對音樂認知不多，浪費出色表演者，冷清場面影響表演者心理，亦令其他欲來港的藝人卻步 |
| 表演埸地太大，座位太多。後排貴價位也不能看清楚表演者，要看大電視。飲食價格合理。現場氣氛很好。另一場air supply是本人為支持振興香港經濟和對此事作正面評價而購票觀看的。 |
| 非常不滿主辦單位在售票的同時，免費無條件向其他人士派入場券。令到在表演當日才決定買票的人買不到$258票，持免費票的人還佔了更佳的座位。買票入場的人似傻瓜，打消買票入場的意欲。 |
| 宣傳不足, 輕視本地歌手 |
| 很失望,有被騙的感覺.全因表演單位之演出時間完全不均等(Michelle Branch演出時間不足1小時,Neil Young卻是2個多小時),有"大細超"及騙人之嫌.希望這些show是個人concert,而不是"湊數".顧此失彼,效果是"兩頭唔到岸".請來2位外國歌手共同分享一個concert,令門票售價提高.門票定價太高,對一般市民及學生絕對是一個負擔.人們因此而欣賞不到表演,縱使該表演質素如何的高也是沒有任何意義.螢幕太細.建議表演場地安裝更大的螢幕,照顧在後排座位觀賞表演的觀察是次巨星匯略縑著重年長歌迷的口味,很多年輕一代不認識的演出單位.故應邀請多些年輕一代的國際知名歌手演出 |
| 政府不應怕要包底而減少舉辦音樂或其他文化及藝術活動，因香港仍有很多人喜愛此類型活動。 |
| 政府不應花大量公帑舉辦這類娛樂活動，若「維港巨星匯」的主要目的是「為香港市民提供高水平的國際級娛樂盛事」，就不應把票價訂得如此昂貴。我認為一些經常邀請外國歌手到港演出、具豐富經驗的娛樂活動搞手會比政府做得更出色，市民可用更便宜的票價欣賞到世界一流的表演。今次的活動只有少數本地市民能夠參與，是非常可惜和浪費公帑。 |
| 政府是不應舉辦類似「維港巨星匯」的音樂活動，因為此乃商業行為，政府不宜以包底形式直接主辦．但香港作為國際都會，實需要多舉行這類高水平的音樂活動，與國際普及流行文化作溝通，而非只會埋首於自身的廣東流行音樂小圈子．因此，政府不宜直接主辦，她只需對肯主辦這類活動的商業機構多提供行政上的方便，如每年預留十一月份的添馬艦這個絕佳的地點，作為同類形國際性音樂會的場地，相信效果會較直接主辦是次「維港巨星匯」更好！ |
| 政府與民爭商 利用公帑 以本傷人 和個體戶爭生意做 |
| 政府應做多些市場調查，及照顧較年輕的一群；另外，如果想多人觀看就不應調高價錢，但係Rolling Stones係值得一看的，但負面的聲音太多，以陰謀論說，promotion 失敗，poster 設計如垃圾，其實搞得不好應該罵，但亦需要給予支持。而傳媒不斷報導負面新聞，是由於不想香港紅，他們是井底之蛙，態度上有問題；而製作公司應該對此事負責，市民不應指責Rolling Stones，有排外成份。香港都應該搞有關活動，但要做好market research, 表演嘉賓的價格。非常不贊成香港要對此活動支付八千萬；而本地及國際表演一定要分開。如下次搞可以聯絡本人，本人可提供意見有關請哪位歌手。 |
| 政府舉辦此活動，目的不清晰，對像不清楚，推廣旅遊幫不到，花費一億廣大市民受惠不到，只娛樂到一些在港工作的外籍人士和樂迷，浪費公帑。 |
| 為何港府可容許\如此淫穢的動畫, 在大銀幕展示令同行的兒童和青少年心靈被污染 請問電檢處的尺度, 用甚麼標準來釐定.請不要再邀請渲染 毒品和色情, 反社會的樂隊來表演. 我親眼見到外國觀眾帶酒入場並醉酒 |
| 美國商會攪外國show俾外國人睇,你話好唔好睇?幫唔幫到香港人? |
| 音響效果差 |
| 音響效果較差, 相反視覺效果,尤其是燈光方面, 就非常好, 值得讚賞 |
| 音響過份噪吵開場時開提早沒有大肆宣傳不尊重本地歌手唯演出者表現落力值得一讚 |
| 首先主辦者全非是舉辦外國巨星音樂會的專業人仕，為何不找這方面較有經驗的人員作合約顧問!? 另外部份演出者雖是國際上極負盛名之巨星，但在香港無人問津，要真正做好宣傳及讓多些香港市民認識及接受這等高水平之流行音樂，必須先要在電台或電視(甚至巴士)上播放演出者之歌曲，好令它們能接觸到廣大市民的耳朵! 本地那批純屬偶像派歌星要同國際技術級樂手及樂隊同台演出這構思簡直是天大笑話!! 完全反映出香港這丁小地方裡大部份人身為井底蛙而不自覺的可憐及可悲! |
| 香港人太民族主義及太自卑了。自己本土音樂失敗，又不願去開放自己、擴闊眼光。 有時又自大，要外國artists遷就香港人、香港歌手。傳媒及部份DJ未有足夠資料，為了本地fans又一起怪外國歌手。香港如何可以再是國際大都會呢? |
| 香港政府主辦「維港巨星」其中一個主要目的說是為宣傳香港，希望可以吸引多些外國遊客來港消費，但未見得有太大宣傳致力於鼓勵近國家居民來港觀看「維港巨星」之演出，以增票房收入及帶來其他旅遊消費。試看紐約及倫敦這兩個城市，沒錯有不少遊客到那裏是為了看自由神像或大笨鐘等 landmark，但同樣每年有以萬數之遊客到訪 New York 及 London 是為看 Broadway 或 West End 的 musicals，足以証明豐富文娛節目本身也是一個國際大都會吸引大量外地遊客之重要條件。既然香港此趟如此下重本錢又有幸能請到 Rolling Stones 前來登台，大可以吸引如韓國、泰國、台灣、廣州等地備有經濟能力的樂迷前來觀賞。韓國、台灣、廣州基於各項限制，都無力主辦「滾石」音樂會，泰國曼谷原先訂好今年四月份舉行的「滾石」音樂會最終也因意外而取消。所以這些地區肯定有樂迷願意來香港消費一個可以欣賞到 "the greatest rock n roll band in the world!" 現場演出機會的週末假期。每年夏天在英國及歐洲，由旅行社組識三、四天旅行團 concert tour 去近國家(遠至東歐)觀賞搖擺\音樂會或露天音樂節極為多見，甚至香港中國旅行社最近都辦有「林子中山演唱會旅遊團」、「Beyond 廣州演唱會旅遊團」! 請問香港政府在不計成本致力舉辦第一屆「維港巨星」的同時，是否有負責推廣香港旅遊的官員或部門，考慮到以上的賣點? 若明年還能有「維港巨星」的話，希望這些建議能被考慮，但可惜明年、後年、甚至再遠的年頭後，「維港巨星」都不可能再有 The Rolling Stones 了! |
| 座位太窄觀眾企曬起身 |
| 氣氛良好,但價錢太貴,應該一個表演單位一場,要不然,對首先演出的單位不公平... |
| 做得好好~ 應該每年舉行。但係價格可以降低吸引多些年青人。亦可加入多些英國band...會有更多年青人參與~ |
| 推廣宣傳嚴重不足！ |
| 部份警察人員態度極度差劣及沒有禮貌 |
| 場數太多，可刪減 |
| 絕對支持邀請如Rolling Stones,Neil Young等典堂級樂手來港表演,媒介渲染無知地作負面報導,最終是大家受到損害. |
| 買票時八說八點開始,但由新聞得知七點開始, 加上塞車, 七點三才到, 聲浪太大, 應該預早通知觀眾,如改時間,與實際時間不相乎。低價票不能看,因為被前排觀眾妨礙視線.另外寫上不可帶酒進場,但場內賣啤酒。加上座位是鐵架,如觀眾看得興奮,會令座位返及造成意外,好在不是全場爆滿。政府應學邀請姚明及楊利偉,效果良好。香港歌手音響不好,安排不好,外國人較多。不應該找美國商會搞,應由香港人自己搞返。因為香港人水平也不錯。 |
| 傳媒對是次活動的報導多屬負面。是次活動又給一些人利用去審判一些人而套上一層政治鬥爭的悲哀。實在非常可惜。一件好事不要強加在壞事上看。香港人需要就是同心，合力不能做到但也應支持，不要分離，批鬥就更可怕。是次活動對香港都是一件好事。 |
| 當初只知道"維港巨星匯"有Rolling Stones的參與,但想買票時跟本不知道應該在那裡買,這與宣傳推廣做得不好有關. |
| 節目其實不錯，但宣傳十分薄弱，要不是枝節連場，報導登上了報刊頭版，真的不曉得有多少人知道是次活動。從整體入座率看，政府的錢是花得浪費，錯過招來遊客的大好機會，尤其可惜，亦令人懷疑有關單位只是交差之作。 |
| 對外國歌手有好的對代，對本地歌手(做啊二)。如請一些大眾化的歌手會有好的給引力。 |
| 歌手與歌手的"間場"長達半小時。部分演出歌手在港知名度不足。 |
| 維港巨星匯太多負面報導,個名臭咗,下次改名為維港音樂節,再做得好D,我絕對支持年年搞. |
| 維港巨星匯應該由商業團體主辦, 政府宜只提供例如免費場地等設施,不應包底, 同時不應該有本地歌星或組合演出, 破壞氣氛, 影響票房,此外, 對外宣傳有待改善 |
| 諗這個構思的官簡直無腦兼低B, 枉佢\地豆咁高人工同福利. 以為搵D三 九唔識七外國歌手來唱一陣就可以吸引外國人來, 唔該佢\地用個豬腦諗下你會唔會因為有歌手在外國演唱而專登買機票去當地聽, 可能只有這些低能錢多到使唔曬, 唔知民間疾苦官就會咁做. 試想用這一億放回香市民, 唔好隨便加稅, 總好過亂咁用, 浪費納稅人D錢. 政府赤字就要猛加薪俸稅, 我們小市民赤字又可向誰討呢? |
| 整體其實不錯但只是宣傳不足 |
| 整體氣氛良好, 非常難得會有這樣的表演。但表演時間遲了開始,至於舞台較差,螢光幕較少,只有台的左右。維持秩序人士都很友善,但場地不太好,如果落雨就會很麻煩,其實可以選擇紅館,會展或大球場,而座位冇需由澳洲運到香港, 另外本人的座位的螺絲亦鬆脫。在宣傳方面不足,因為不知從何可以得到每場表演嘉賓的資料,而且除通利外有什麼地方可以買到飛。政府應該搞有關音樂活動,可以令外國知道香港的能力,提高知名度,吸引更多的遊客, 如皇馬。但在派飛那一場很混亂, 因為不應每人派四張,太多了。另外不應用外地製作商,因為香港都有人材,如果器材不足,可購買,製作單位看不起香港人。整體都滿意,因為可以有克林頓到來觀賞。 |
| 應由私人機構自己辦這種節目。政府不應津貼。 |
| 應考慮除了西方巨星樂隊外，可以一晚是全日本紅星，一晚是全台灣，一晚是全香港........ |
| 應省點錢 |
| 應給有經驗的公司主辦, 做多一點宣傳. |
| 應該像外國的,例如Band Aid, Woodstock的二十四小時不停地表演,這樣才可識合本地或其他亞洲表演者, 及應該分判部份歌手給多種主辦基構和多找多種贊助商,可以提供多元化的製作方式及多一些贊助收入,贈券,宣傳及自然便多很多周邊餘慶節目, 這樣便會使市面振興. 因為這個HARBOURFEST不但沒有振興經濟, 反而令到市面比平時平淡, 例如7號這場Rollingstone是星期五,理應中環夜市是很熱鬧,但是相反連同前一天星期四都不知為甚麼比平時冷淡. 及不知道為甚麼閉慕的一場為甚麼安排在星期日晚, 因為普通人都星期一早上上班所從星期日晚上不會太狂玩, 但我知道他們又安排了兩個興足party在這個晚上. 總之, 這次維港巨星匯是用人不適當, 好像老人家搞聯歡會一樣. 基本香港有很多國際級及很有經驗的人才. 應該不應這樣田地的. |
| 應該邀請更多外國國際巨星, 例如: Madonna, Machael Jackson, Pink Ford, Sting, Paul McCartney, Elton John, John Lennon, David Bowie, Boy George 及 廚師Jamie Oliver等等 |
| 講明果位明星會做幾耐囉,好似我睇呢場既michelle咁睇左40分鐘,七隻歌就走左喇,雖然neil都唔差,但係始終都係想睇michelle嫁嘛,neil做左兩幾個鐘,michelle我知佢\係日本做緊演唱會,但係都唔係得40分鐘咁少呀,對於michelle既fans唔係咁公平囉同埋希望比多d時間歌手去試下可唔可以夾下歌咁囉以neil既結他技術,同michelle一齊夾歌,一定會更加更加好!! |