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Header images courtesy of S2O Hong Kong
Looking for things to do this month? Here’s our rundown of the best events and things to do in Hong Kong this June. See what’s coming up this weekend.
Gentle Books is hosting its next monthly pop-up at Common Ground, a café in Central, from 10 am till 5 pm. A selection of around 200 fiction and non-fiction books will be on sale, starting at just $20. You can also pre-order a book from the website and pick it up at the pop-up. Find out more here.
On 22 June, Avoca will host the “Doll Factory: A Pride Month Party,” welcoming six international transgender and gender non-conforming DJs to the deck. From 8 pm till late, Metamoska, Baby Ikea, Barbare Pleaser, Teya Logos, Dziffi, and Dignos will take it in turns to make us dance. Learn more here.
Little Woods Nature Education, an organisation focused on exploring Hong Kong’s natural treasures and inspiring people and children to care about local ecology through fun learning experiences, is hosting its next night safari on Lamma Island. Discover more here.
Korean group Highlight is making its long-awaited comeback to Hong Kong after six years of absence! With the fifteenth anniversary of the band coming up, the excitement is palpable. Find out more here.
Make Music Hong Kong is a festival inspired by the Fête de la Musique, an annual celebration of music in France on the day of summer solstice. Gathering professional and amateur artists alike to perform and share their passion of music, this year’s Make Music Hong Kong will take over Fringe Dairy and The Wanch over two days. Learn more here.
Japanese band The 5.6.7.8’s is coming to Hong Kong for one night only! You might remember their hit song Woo Hoo from Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1, but the female garage rock band has been shredding since 1986, the longest-running group of its genre in Japan. Discover more here.
Presented in partnership with ISH Dance Collective, the Elements of Freestyle urban sports show celebrates the arrival of urban sports in the Olympics Games, as well as the fifth anniversary of Freespace in the West Kowloon Cultural District. Discover more here.
Summer is here, and with it returns barbecue and music festival season. For one day only, you can enjoy both on Saturday, 29 June, at Lamma Island’s own version of the Lollapalooza music festival: Lamma Palooza! Learn more here.
If you’re feeling anxious about the current climate change crisis and don’t know how you can help, why not join a beach-cleaning event? Hong Kong Cleanup hosts regular Sunday cleaning events, and will head to Clear Water Bay on 29 June to collect trash washed up on Silverstrand Beach. Learn more here.
In celebration of Philippines Independence Day, Filipino bar and restaurant Barkada in Central is hosting an eight-day traditional neighbourhood party, the barrio fiesta! Festivities will kick off on 12 June with a live music performance by Pascual. On Saturday, 15 June, Barkada will dish out its kamayan brunch menu for the Boodle Fight free-flow karaoke brunch. Finally, the Barrio bartender party on 20 June brings together a large community of Filipino bartenders. Click here for more details.
Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong’s Japanese izakaya bar, The Aubrey, is dimming the lights and turning the volume up at its newly launched “The Aubrey After Dark” sessions! This new nightlife series celebrates Hong Kong’s ever-evolving party and clubbing scene, with a nod to its golden era in the 1960s. Learn more here.
For the very first time, One Love Asia Festival is being held in Hong Kong at the Central Harbourfront Event Space from 21 to 23 June! A large variety of artists will gather to bring us unforgettable performances. As a lifestyle festival, there will also be other forms of entertainment, and plenty of food and drinks to enjoy. Find out more here.
Quality Goods Club is bringing back its beloved Canton Disco night with DJ Fabsabs & Friends on Sunday, 9 June. A night imbued with partying and musical nostalgia of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s is just what we need to ring in the long Dragon Boat Festival weekend. Click here for more details.
Stockholm’s very own Restaurant AG, ranked ninth on the World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants, is coming to Fireside, Hong Kong’s open fire grill restaurant, for an epic collaboration! Martin Kjall of AG and Jaime Ortola of Fireside have concocted an eight-course four-hands menu for your dining pleasure. Learn more here.
Music festival season is here, and one event you should not miss is The Nextwave XX24, a beach music festival happening on 29 and 30 June. The exciting event is headlined by Tyson Yoshi, RubberBand, Lolly Talk, and much more. Find out more here.
Swap your clothes for a whole new wardrobe! Take Out Plastic’s next Top Swop will be held from 1 to 2 June at The Hive in Sheung Wan. From 11 am till 6 pm, you can bring your clothes and rotate your wardrobe. Find out more here.
Women in Sports Empowered Hong Kong (WISE) is holding its 2024 film festival on Saturday, 1 June! The Wise Film Festival 2024 promotes the importance of sports through women’s empowering stories of resilience, diversity, and conversation. The festival’s screening lineup consists of seven short films followed by a panel discussion. Learn more here.
S2O Songkran Music Festival is back! Inspired by the symbolic washing away of bad luck through water fights during the Songkran Festival—also known as the Thai New Year—S2O is known for its giant water cannons and water guns for sale on-site, where festival-goers can splash to their hearts’ content while enjoying pulsating live music. Discover more here.
Around the world, sports enthusiasts have been breaking fresh ground with the rise of padel tennis. Padel combines elements from both tennis and squash, and is played on a closed court with a no-string racquet. Taikoo Place is hosting the Project After 6: Padel Tour 2024 in Quarry Bay until 19 July, in partnership with Padel+ and Adidas. Find out more here.
Waterbomb Festival, one of South Korea’s most popular events, is coming to Hong Kong as part of its world tour! Happening on the first weekend of June at the West Kowloon Cultural District, festival-goers can expect an exceptional lineup of artists and lots of fun at the water battleground. Learn more here.
M+ is launching the inaugural edition of the Asian Avant-Garde Film Festival this May, an event supported by Chanel. From 30 May to 2 June, a multitude of screenings, exhibitions, workshops, panel talks with key players in the industry, and live performances revolving around Asian independent art filmmaking will be hosted at the modern museum located in the West Kowloon Cultural District. Find out more here.
The Hong Kong Tourism Board is holding more regular pyrotechnic and drone displays over Victoria Harbour. A drone display and a fireworks show will celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival near the Wan Chai promenade on 10 and 15 June, respectively. Learn more here.
Concluding Hong Kong Ballet’s memorable 2023/2024 season—with crowds still raving about The Great Gatsby and The Nutcracker—is the world premiere of Swan Lake by San Francisco Ballet resident choreographer Yuri Possokhov. It will run from 31 May till 9 June with afternoon and evening performances. Find out more here.
Japanese artist Imase, who became an overnight sensation after his song Night Dancer went viral, is going on a tour across Asia, and making a stop in Hong Kong! His Shiki tour will see the self-taught artist reprise songs from his first EP, Pop Cube, as well as his non-album hit singles released throughout 2023. Click here to learn more.
Raise your glass! In celebration of World Gin Day on 8 June, Central Market is hosting Gin Fest 2024, featuring a diverse roster of mixologists who will deliver masterclasses and tasting sessions across three days. Central Market will also allocate a space for stalls, where you can purchase and try up to 60 different gins. Find out more here.
Paddles ready, get set, go! Gathering more than 150 teams and over 5,500 athletes, the epic dragon boat competition in Stanley makes a triumphant return! Learn more here.
If you are an NCTzen, your wish to see the South Korean boyband in concert is coming true! Since the group’s debut song Chewing Gum, released eight years ago, NCT Dream has gained major international success. This month, the hit boyband will perform two shows in Hong Kong at the AsiaWorld-Expo on 15 and 16 June! Learn more here.
It’s Dragon Boat Festival again, and the popular local holiday celebrated by many in Hong Kong means that there will be dragon boating races on the calendar. For those who want to enjoy all-day fun, the Dragon Boat Festival celebration goes on till after nightfall, with a grand firework display. Find out more here.
M+ is staging the first large-scale retrospective on the life and work of Ieoh Ming Pei. The late Chinese-American architect, better known as I M Pei, is remembered for striking creations, including Hong Kong’s very own Bank of China Tower, the pyramid of the Louvre in Paris, the Suzhou Museum, and the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. Find out more here.
Get ready for some volleyball excitement—teams from Germany, the Dominican Republic, Bulgaria, China, Turkey, Thailand, Brazil, and Poland are going to compete against each other in Hong Kong, the last host city of the Volleyball Nations League 2024. Learn more here.
Presented by local drama collective Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio, the Hong Kong International Shakespeare Festival 2024 explores the breadth and depth of the famous playwright’s iconic stories through contemporary adaptations from Hong Kong and beyond. Learn more here.
Multimedia artist Gary Card is currently exhibiting his work at Oi! Street Art Space as part of the annual Oi! Spotlight programme. It is Card’s first major solo show in Hong Kong, and it will run until 28 July. Named “People Mountain People Sea,” the indoor and outdoor immersive exhibit stays true to Card’s out-there, colourful style. Learn more here.
Coinciding with the recent opening of Anima Tokyo, the new 80,000-square-foot anime retail and entertainment destination in Tsim Sha Tsui, is the opening of the comprehensive “Fullmetal Alchemist Exhibition.” Dedicated to the same-named manga and anime, the exhibition takes visitors on a journey through manga artist Hiromu Arakawa’s enduring Fullmetal Alchemist series. Learn more here.
The brainchild of Ryotaro Muramatsu, the “Naked Flowers” project is part of the Japanese artist’s digital art installation portfolio that began with “Naked Garden One Kyoto” in 2022. Since then, the artist has presented countless immersive art experiences to Japanese audiences. “Naked Flowers” is composed of eight experiential zones. Learn more here.
Taking place for the first time in five years, the biennial Hong Kong Games opened on 21 April with a grand ceremony held at the Hong Kong Coliseum. The tournament is organised by the Sports Commission and involves participants from all 18 districts of Hong Kong. Find out more here.
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s acclaimed Broadway musical The Sound of Music is coming to Hong Kong! The much-loved production will be performed at Xiqu Centre from 15 April to 9 June with matinee and night performances. Click here for more information.
Ben Brown Fine Arts is presenting an exhibition of artists Gerhard Richter and Sean Scully’s works, titled “Celestial Mechanics: Form and Future in the Work of Gerhard Richter and Sean Scully.” 19 large-scale paintings are showcased in a comprehensive presentation of both artists’ careers from their formative years to the present. Learn more here.
May in Hong Kong means the French May Arts Festival is back! French May has been around since 1993 and has become a cultural landmark, with hundreds of events on the programme happening over the course of a few months. The event takes place across many cultural venues in the city, from museums and theatres to cinemas, concert halls, art galleries, malls, city hall, and more. Find out more here.
The Peninsula Hong Kong’s afternoon tea collaboration with Hong Kong Star Ferry is back by popular demand. Locals and visitors alike can look forward to a one-of-a-kind high tea experience while sailing along the Victoria Harbour. Discover more here.
From now till 3 July, you can visit the Wan Chai Harbourfront Event Space to enjoy SummerFest @ Wan Chai. From 2 pm to 9 pm every day, come and relax in the sun, admire art, browse market stalls, enjoy music and sports, and try good food. A total of 26 outdoor events will run alongside the A-Maze-ing Harbourfront entertainment zone, providing stunning harbour views, easy access, and fun for all. Learn more here.
From now till mid-July, the Wan Chai Harbourfront Event Space is transformed into a maze-themed entertainment zone complete with art, entertainment, and plenty of photo-taking opportunities. Learn more here.
Under the theme “Arts & Action,” the Hong Kong Pop Culture Festival 2024 is an ensemble of cultural events taking place across the city to celebrate the city’s creative talents. The martial arts genre holds a special place in this year’s edition as Hong Kong commemorates the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Chinese wuxia novels giant Jin Yong. Learn more here.
“TeamLab: Continuous” is a large-scale outdoor installation showing from now till 2 June at Tamar Park. Hundreds of egg-shaped art sculptures light up at night, with colours and sounds changing according to visitors’ interaction with the art. Open from 6.30 pm till 11 pm every day, admission is free but entry is limited, so to secure a ticket, you must pre-register your attendance. Find out more here.
Hong Kong Palace Museum has launched an exhibition for those interested in Chinese history! “Yuan Ming Yuan—Art and Culture of an Imperial Garden-Palace” is centred around Yuanmingyuan, the old Qing imperial garden palace. Visitors can learn about its spatial planning, the ceremonial rituals and seasonal customs performed at the garden, interactions between landscaping and Chinese painting, stories about the Chinese imperial family, as well as the transformation and preservation of the ruins. Learn more here.
Eternal and forever dazzling, Anita Mui was and still is one the biggest Hong Kong stars. The late superstar is at the centre of an exhibition by the Hong Kong Heritage Museum: “Timeless Diva: Anita Mui.” Commemorating the two decades since her untimely passing, it displays records, movie posters, stage costumes, awards, film memorabilia, and pop-culture products while looking back on her impressive career. Learn more here.
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