For more than five decades, the Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF) has played a pioneering role in bringing some of the most noteworthy names in classical music, theatre, opera and dance to our city. That has always meant star soloists, storied orchestras, glittering divas and grizzled conductors flown in from Europe’s storied centres of culture for a few nights only.
While there’s no dimming of the star-wattage this year, the number of artists from Hong Kong, mainland China and across East Asia featured at the festival’s 2026 edition speaks to both the wealth of talent the region has developed — and the growing audience it demands. And with a growing embrace of multimedia and diverse musical traditions, from VR concerts and virtual choirs to K-drama stars and Chinese-Indian musical fusions, the 54th HKAF may represent the festival’s most diverse and inclusive programming yet.
So even if you don’t care if it’s Mozart or Mendelssohn, or know Beckett from Brecht — four names that naturally all feature in this year’s festival — here are the regional artists and locally inspired shows worth celebrating.
Hi-tech immersion
Anyone who missed the chance to see Ryuichi Sakamoto in his lifetime can experience the next-best thing with Tiin Drum’s Kagami, an immersive mixed-reality spectacle that sees audience members strap on a headset enabling them to relive an intimate piano recital by the late Japanese master (27 February to 15 March at Freespace).
More inventive? Shanghai pianist Yu Xiangjun’s “hypermedia recital” Bi-An strips contemporary Chinese opera down for solo piano, accompanied by immersive visuals incorporating calming landscapes and motifs – proof that tradition and modernity can move forward hand in hand (13 March at the East Kowloon Cultural Centre).
Inspired by Hong Kong
The hazy mood of Wong Kar-wai’s 2046 was supposedly shaped by The Drunkard, a landmark of Hong Kong literature written by Shanghai emigré Liu Yichang, which is widely hailed as the first stream-of-conscious novel penned in the Chinese language. Now, remarkably, non-Chinese-speaking German theatre director Sebastian Kaiser has adapted it for the stage, in an “ultra-poor, hyper mobile [and] eco-conscious” Cantonese-language production one imagines is sleight in staging but heavy in substance (28 February to 8 March at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre).
Looking East, from the West
Two Western classical music talents are preparing to present brand new works inspired by Hong Kong and China. Luxembourg conductor/composer Marcel Wengler spent five years penning his Chinese Rhapsody which, commissioned and performed by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, naturally includes traditional instrumentation to tell a contemporary story based on multiple visits to Hong Kong and China (28 February at Hong Kong City Hall).
On the same day, US organ maverick Cameron Carpenter will perform a brand new soundtrack scoring 1934 Chinese silent film classic Sports Queen – based on previous performances, we can expect fireworks from the venue’s built-in (but underutilised) organ (28 February at the Hong Kong Culture Centre).
Beckett and Brecht… in Chinese?!
For a symbol of the festival’s changing demographics, look no further than Mandarin-language adaptations of classic plays by two of the 20th century’s boldest playwrights: seminal Chinese dramatist Meng Jinghui’s adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s absurdist classic Waiting For Godot (March 12-15, Hong Kong City Hall); and Dead Centre and Beijing Repertory Theater’s collaborative reworking of Bertolt Brecht’s surrealist first play, Baal (19–22 March at Hong Kong City Hall).
Hometown heroes
Hong Kong-born, Berlin-based pianist Chiyan Wong returns to the city to premiere Reflections on a Sampan, a series of original material, penned in a jazz and bossa nova style and inspired by the dying songs of Hong Kong’s fisherfolk (14 March at the East Kowloon Culture Centre) — check Zolima CityMag in March for the full fascinating story.
Meanwhile, Aristo Sham can expect a hero’s welcome when he performs in his hometown for the first since winning two top prizes the Van Cliburn International Piano, also known as the instrument’s Olympics. The Hong Kong talent claimed both the gold medal and Audience Award at the June 2025 competition, clinching the deal with a closing performance of Brahms second piano concerto. There’s also plenty of Brahms on his two solo recitals at HKAF (20–21 March at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre).
K-drama royalty meets Korean Kafka
Naturally, the chance to see a real-life K-drama on stage in Hong Kong caused an rush on tickets; they’re already sold out. But the appearance of Moon So-ri — star of Netflix smash When Life Gives You Tangerines — only risks overpowering the dense drama of The Empire of Light. Based on a novel by “Korean Kafka” Kim Young-ha, the new Korean-language adaptation is interestingly directed by French director Arthur Nauzyciel (20–21 March at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts).
Around the world
HKAF 2026 enjoys a fresh embrace of global sounds missing in many recent editions. As well as the infectious Cuban jazz grooves of Buena Vista Social Club associate Roberto Fonseca, HKAF is turning a fresh lens to diverse regional traditions at the somewhat problematically named World Music Weekend (28–29 March at Hong Kong City Hall), which mixes and matches two performances from three different artists over three shows (so any single ticket means you get to see two of the three artists). Featured are Fujian’s Dianshui Nanyue, who inject nanyin traditions with a modern edge; “K-jazz” quartet Gonia; and Taiwanese duo Wooonta, whose sound is built around the unlikely pairing of the Chinese erhu with the Indian sitar.