Mid-Autumn Festival is rolling round again (four day weekend, hollaaaa!), so what better time to bring you… a full year late… the gorgeous lanterns from last year’s festivities?!
My advice is to bypass the crowds at Victoria Park and instead head to Tsim Sha Tsui’s Cultural Centre Piazza, where every year they have an awesome thematic lantern exhibition. It stays on display for a full month (much longer than the ones at Victoria Park), is less crowded (especially if you hit it when everyone else is having their dinner or when they are otherwise occupied with the Symphony Of Lights show), provides almost an hour’s worth of photo opportunities and intense study of all the amazing close-up details of each lantern, plus you can then get the Star Ferry home and admire HK’s amazing skyline… its very own modern cityscape of a lantern show.
I wondered how the LCSD were going to better their charming wonderful Rhapsody Of Hong Kong Memories lantern exhibition from 2010… so in 2011, they went straight for the cute jugular with Moon Fun Playground, a fairground themed display with loads of adorable bunny lanterns everywhere (well, it was the Year of the Rabbit after all!).
Here are a few of my highlights…
Moon Fun Playground’s centrepiece: a giant bunny rollercoaster, with cavorting dolphins, whales and errr… windmills. Take that, Ocean Park!
Tightrope walking… plate spinning… these bunnies got skillz!
Mid-autumn festival lanterns holding… other mid-autumn festival lanterns. Totally meta!
I love the detail that went into all the bunnies’ outfits – they could have easily just made them block colours, but instead they have little dungarees, waistcoasts and bows.
I think pirate bunny may be my absolute favourite… can you tell?!
This year, TST’s lantern exhibition will be the much less light-hearted sounding Terracotta Warriors of the Qin Dynasty. It will run from 13 September until 21 October… so I’ll probably bring you my recap of that sometime in 2013! As for Victoria Park – well, last year, they had some of the Rhapsody of Hong Kong Memories lanterns recycled for the display there, so you never know, you might see these bunnies make a return appearance this time round too!
Moon Fun Playground thematic lantern exhibition, Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazza (near Star Ferry), Tsim Sha Tsui; 1 September until 9 October 2011, 6.30-11.00pm.
Through The Looking Glass 
It looks fun. Wish I could be there.
These pictures are so beautiful, Rach! I love Pirate Bunny too. 😉
We skipped last year because we didn’t feel like fighting the crowds at Victoria Park, but TST sounds like a great idea! Still trying to get used to the idea of a “Mid-Autumn Festival” when it’s this hot outside. >_<
Hehe thanks Elizabeth!
Yup, definitely check out TST and make an evening of it with dinner somewhere nice… although Terracotta Warriors of the Qin Dynasty sounds substantially less cute than pirate bunnies!