Things to do in Hong Kong this autumn

When: October 9 to 13

Where: Hong Kong Cultural Centre, East Kowloon Cultural Centre, and various venues citywide

Organised by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, the second Hong Kong Performing Arts Expo returns under the theme Passion in Motion. The event kicks off with Open Prologue (October 6 to 9), a four-day series of free outdoor sunset performances featuring dance, Cantonese opera and live music at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazza.

Alongside industry delegate events, the expo presents public ticketed showcases, including arts-tech piano performance City Reverie, Hungarian “cirque danse” production Paradisum, and Chilean drama An Isolated Case. Thirteen citywide partner programmes featuring Hong Kong Ballet, HK Phil and Tai Kwun complete the festival.

When: October 14 to November 14

Where: Ora-Ora, 105–107 Barrack Block, Tai Kwun, 10 Hollywood Road, Central

Commemorating Hong Kong gallery Ora-Ora’s 20th anniversary, The Hunch brings together nine international and local artists in a group showcase curated by Cyrus Lamprecht. Serving as the opening chapter of Lamprecht’s Ambiguity curatorial project, the exhibition explores intuition, belief and uncertainty through a diverse range of artistries, including landscapes, portraiture, abstraction and animal motifs.

Drawing inspiration from Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophical concept of a “leap of faith”, the showcase contemplates the dual meaning of a "hunch", referring both to an intuitive inner impulse and the physical posture of leaning forward in silent contemplation or artistic creation. Participating artists include Stephen Thorpe, Chino Ng, Lee Jinju, Xu Lei, Leung Pui Yi, Belinda Janousek, Wong Sze Wai, Cheng Chit Yan and Xiao Xu.

When: October 31, 9PM til late

Where: TopTown, 28/F, 28 Stanley Street, Central

Founded by local musician Wesley Jamison and DJ Papa Minou, event organiser Peaches & Cream is known for delivering some of the city’s grooviest R&B parties. This Halloween, the team returns with its signature festive edition, Peaches & Scream. Taking over rooftop cocktail lounge TopTown in Central, the one-night-only event embraces a “Bloody R&B Affair” theme, encouraging guests to channel their inner Michael Jackson and sport their finest Blood on the Dance Floor looks.

Throughout the evening, the DJ booth will spin a curated setlist of smooth R&B tracks spanning from the 1980s to the present day, blended with moody slow jams and dark party aesthetics.

When: October 31

Where: New Hung Hom Harbourfront and Soho House Hong Kong

Presented by Social Club Series in partnership with Tequila Don Julio, Evoke Festival takes over the New Hung Hom Harbourfront as Hong Kong’s first open-air electronic music festival featuring a 270-degree Victoria Harbour panorama. Drawing inspiration from Mexico’s Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead), the festival reimagines traditional Halloween tropes into a musical celebration of life and human connection.

The festival unfolds across two distinct chapters, opening at the open-air harbour front stage with international electronic acts including Arcando, Genesi, Konstantin Sibold and Tim Bliss, alongside laser light shows and a dress-up dance parade. Beyond the main stage, festival goers can visit a dedicated Glam Area featuring M·A·C makeup transformations and complimentary GHD hairstyling, before the afterparty transitions indoors to Soho House.

When: Every Friday to Sunday

Where: Tea House Theatre, Xiqu Centre, 88 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui

Presented by the Tea House Rising Stars Troupe under the guidance of Cantonese opera master Law Ka-ying, the Tea House Theatre Experience offers a 90-minute introduction to traditional Chinese theatre. Recreating the intimate atmosphere of early 20th-century Hong Kong tea houses, the showcase features a changing repertoire of instrumental music, operatic songs and classic performance excerpts, including highlights from Time to go Home, The Butterfly Lovers and Red Pear Blossom.

Supported by WestK Performing Arts’ partner Rolex through its Perpetual Arts Initiative, the programme fosters emerging talent while preserving local intangible heritage. Audience members enjoy expert narration alongside complimentary traditional tea and dim sum throughout the showcase, with performances delivered in Cantonese accompanied by Chinese and English surtitles.

When: Weekends from August 22 to September 13

Where: Murray House (Stanley), The Pulse, and The Repulse Bay

Southside Summer takes over three Southern District venues across four weekends at the tail end of summer with live music, wellness sessions, pop-up marketplaces and family-friendly programming.

The first two weekends (August 22–23, 29–30) feature a two-floor DJ day party and an artisanal marketplace at the historic Murray House, while Repulse Bay offers wellness residencies by yoga studio Ikigai, fitness house H-Kore, and XYZ, the local spin staple. The festival then shifts energy to The Pulse and Repulse Bay for its final two weekends (September 5–6, 12–13) with a pop-up pickleball court, puppy yoga, a “throwback bikini & gelato rave”, and daytime Hip-hop and R&B takeovers.

When: August 22 to October 3

Where: GOLD, G/F, Remex Centre, 42 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Wong Chuk Hang

Commissioned by Serakai Studio and curated by co-founder Tobias Berger and Aaditya Sathish, curator of Art Central 2025, Memory & Punishment is an immersive sound installation and durational performance by Janice Laujan, artist and lead vocalist of post-punk band David Boring.

Designed to be a sensory garden with a plush, undulating purple floor, dimmed lighting and a soft haze, the shoes-off environment transforms visitors’ physical movements into an evolving acoustic landscape that explores grief, shame and memory.

Throughout its run, the exhibition features unrepeatable, hour-long sound interventions by local artists Kelvin T, Nerve, Gold Mountain and Karen Yu. Additionally, David Boring will present a live performance within the installation space on September 13.

When: September 9 to October 2

Where: The Corner Shop by Mondrian Hong Kong, 11A Hart Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui

Artist, writer and disability rights advocate Sophie Cheung hosts a multi-medium solo exhibition at the five-star Mondrian hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. Grounded in her own lived experience and over a decade of advocating for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the exhibition questions how legal, medical and social frameworks shape human autonomy, dignity, and the ways individuals are understood.

Working across video, ink and repurposed everyday items, Cheung turns discarded materials into testimonies of lived reality. Highlighted works include Erasing News: 12 June 2026, an installation reflecting on a local public tragedy and media memory, and her new video essay Remission (2026), examining the ambiguous, undefined space between acute illness and full recovery.

This comprehensive retrospective celebrates the expressive mastery and experimental spirit of the late Hong Kong ink artist Wesley Tongson (1957–2012). Famous for abandoning traditional brushes later in his career to paint directly with his hands and fingers, Tongson created dynamic, rhythmic landscape compositions that bridge traditional Chinese ink painting with abstract expressionism. The showcase features a curated collection of his most monumental works and personal studies.

Dates: Until October 11

Venue: Chantal Miller Gallery, Asia Society, 9 Justice Drive, Admiralty

Ticketing: Free entry; learn more via Asia Society

Tai Kwun pays tribute to the paak zyu soeng, or “partner up”, spirit of camaraderie that carried Hong Kong filmmakers and their on-screen heroes through every crisis. Expect action teams to unveil the magic behind iconic gravity-defying special effects, alongside behind-the-scenes recollections from the heavy hitters who brought Hong Kong’s cinematic language all the way to Hollywood.

Dates: Until October 4

Venue: Duplex Studio, LG1-LG2/F, Block 1, Tai Kwun, Central

Ticketing: Tickets range from HK$20 to HK$30, bookable through Klook or Tk Fan

Celebrating its tenth anniversary, CityU’s Indra and Harry Banga Gallery presents an expansive exhibition exploring the cultural significance of gaming. Curated by game-studies scholar Espen Aarseth, the retrospective spans six interactive sections, tracing the evolution of gaming from the 5,000-year-old Egyptian board game Senet to modern virtual reality, Minecraft, and indie titles. Visitors can also participate in “Buckets of Fun”, a team-based interactive challenge utilising industrial robotic arms.

Date: Until October 25, 11am until 7pm daily, closed on Mondays

Venue: The Indra and Harry Banga Gallery, 18/F, Lau Ming Wai Academic Building, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong

Ticketing: Free admission, bookable through CityU

When: Until November 2

Where: DX design hub, 280 Tung Chau Street, Sham Shui Po

The Hong Kong Design Centre presents two community-focused exhibitions exploring Sham Shui Po’s local craftsmanship and district stories.

Co-curated with Edmund Kan of art promotion platform Art Dreamers, Meow-cation – With Cats, We Connect features a giant cat installation on the ground floor, wrapped in a patchwork coat crafted from local fabrics, buttons and zippers sourced directly from Sham Shui Po’s markets. Co-created by over 130 students, fashion designers and textile merchants, the display also includes ceiling video projections of adoptable rescue cats and an interactive photo booth.

Concurrently, Browse and Found in Sham Shui Po, curated by local studio yucolab’s Ng Tsz Kwan, showcases over 200 forgotten everyday objects documented by 100 students using 3D scanning technology to preserve the district’s resourceful street wisdom and evolving heritage.

When: Until November 2

Where: The Design Museum, 2/F, DX design hub, 280 Tung Chau Street, Sham Shui Po

Presented by the Hong Kong Design Centre at Sham Shui Po’s DX design hub, Fading Out/In: Designed to Remember explores how contemporary design safeguards the city’s vanishing cultural heritage.

The exhibition contrasts nostalgia with innovation across two zones: a “Memory Zone” celebrating everyday icons like neon signage, mahjong soundscapes and classic kraft paper bags, alongside a “Transformation Zone” featuring 12 modern reinterpretations, from circular-fashion lion dance costumes and digital street calligraphy to creative takes on iconic homegrown brands like Camel vacuum flasks and Red A plasticware.

The Japanese pop culture phenomenon Chiikawa arrives in Hong Kong with Chiikawa Artiverse, an artistic and immersive takeover centered around illustrator Nagano’s beloved characters. Blending contemporary art installations with interactive digital displays, the exhibition offers a playful journey through giant character sculptures, conceptual art scenes, and exclusive merchandise drops designed specifically for the Hong Kong stop.

Dates: August 1 to September 6

Venue: G/F & 6/F, K11 Musea, 18 Salisbury Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui

Ticketing: Tickets available via Klook

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s legendary musical masterpiece Cats returns to Hong Kong as part of its international tour. Featuring an acclaimed international cast, vibrant choreography, and the iconic anthem “Memory”, the award-winning production brings TS Eliot’s whimsical poems to life inside an oversized, immersive junkyard set. It remains a timeless theatrical spectacle suited for both long-time theatregoers and first-time audiences.

Dates: 6 August to 6 September

Venue: Grand Theatre, Xiqu Centre, 88 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui

Ticketing: Tickets bookable via Cityline

This thematic exhibition celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Hong Kong Film Archive by displaying a curated selection of historical artefacts from its repository of over 1.3 million items. Visitors can walk through a photographic tunnel of local cinematic figures, view early Hong Kong cinema props, resplendent filmmaking costumes and industry awards in the “Hall of Honours,” alongside interactive multimedia installations that trace the history of local screen culture.

Dates: Ongoing through March 29 (Closed on Tuesdays)

Venue: Thematic Galleries 1 & 2, 1/F, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, 1 Man Lam Road, Sha Tin

Ticketing: Free admission; details can be found on the Hong Kong Film Archive website

M+ turns its gaze to the overlooked genius of the everyday, the design hidden in the simple acts of eating, walking and sitting down. Adapted from the much-loved Japanese concept, this playful, family-friendly exhibition unfolds across a series of interactive stations that invite you to poke, peer and play your way to seeing the ordinary world through a new lens. Children and grown-ups alike leave looking twice at the objects they handle a hundred times a day, the mark of design done so well that it usually goes unnoticed.

Date: Until January 10

Time: Tuesday to Thursday and weekends, 10am until 6pm; Friday, 10am until 10pm

Venue: Main Hall Gallery, M+, West Kowloon

Ticketing: Tickets range from HK$100 to HK$190, bookable through M+

When: Fridays in August

Where: AIA Vitality Park, Hong Kong Observation Wheel, Central

Friday Night Live returns to AIA Vitality Park beneath the Hong Kong Observation Wheel as part of the Rethink Summer campaign. Running across five consecutive Fridays, the free outdoor music series invites partygoers and families alike to kick off their weekend along the Central waterfront.

Each session features a high-energy roster of live musical performances spanning classic 80s rock, pop rock and beloved Canto-pop hits. Centred around the theme of joyful movement as a form of wellness, the open-air event encourages visitors to dance, enjoy the harbour views, and soak in the vibrant evening atmosphere.

Part of the Open the Box series at Tai Kwun Contemporary, Filipino artist Ryan Villamael presents a compelling site-specific installation titled Pleasant Place. Known for his meticulous, hand-cut paper sculptures, Villamael transforms the gallery into an intricate, layered visual sanctuary. By manipulating paper to resemble organic foliage and historical cartography, the exhibition delves into complex themes of colonial history, personal geography, memory and the evolving concept of home.

Dates: July 17 to August 31

Venue: Tai Kwun Contemporary, 10 Hollywood Road, Central

Ticketing: Free entry

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