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Running for 12 consecutive Thursdays since October 25, 2012 at the Tsun Yip Street Playground, the "Playful Thursday @ Tsun Yip Street - Veggie | Arts Jamboree" (Playful Thursday) drew to a close today (January 10).
Officiating at the closing ceremony, the Permanent Secretary for Development (Works), Mr Wai Chi-sing, said that Tsun Yip Street Playground (the Playground) had great potential as a location for different kinds of place-making events. Bringing vitality to the community, the Playground could be developed into a high quality urban space for the public to visit for relaxation and leisure purposes.
At the ceremony Mr Wai also launched the Playground's facelift project together with the Vice Chairman of Kwun Tong District Council, Ms So Lai-chun. The facelift project will be progressively implemented this year to release the Playground's potential and pave the way for its transformation into Kwun Tong Industrial Heritage Park. The first-stage improvement works to the Tsun Yip Street sitting-out-area will be completed around mid-2014.
Another place-making project, "Fly the Flyover Operation 1", which aims to open up the vacant government land underneath the Kwun Tong Bypass and transform it to an informal cultural and performance venue for various activities including music, cultural and arts performances and exhibitions, is also in the pipeline. The venue will open to the public on January 20 following the completion of works. An open-style design has been adopted for the site and it will be maintained as a public space for people to relax and visit freely.
Seventeen local organic farmers, 12 organic food retailers, and six charitable organisations/social enterprises offering a large variety of organic farm produce, healthy food products and home-made craft products participated at Playful Thursday. Regular performances by bands and singers, Chinese and Western musical instruments, street dance and Latin dance, magic shows, styling demonstrations and art exhibits were staged by over 20 teams/units and over 10 local artists. Since its opening on October 25 the event has received very encouraging responses with over 35 000 visitors in total, many of whom work or live nearby. Encouragingly, the concept of green living and arts in the community extended beyond the Playground, with a group of local artists displaying colourful paintings on traffic signal/lighting control boxes in the neighbourhood for the enjoyment of passersby.
Other officiating guests at today's closing ceremony included the Assistant Director (Agriculture) of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation, Dr Liu Kwei-kin; Vice Chairman of Kwun Tong District Council, Ms So Lai-chun; Chairman of the Federation of Vegetable Marketing Co-operative Societies, Mr Tang Nuen-fun; and Head of the Energizing Kowloon East Office (EKEO), Mr Raymond Lee.
The event was jointly organised by the EKEO of the Development Bureau and Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, with the support of various stakeholders and government departments including Kwun Tong District Council, the Federation of Vegetable Marketing Co-operative Societies, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, the Kwun Tong District Office, the Architectural Services Department, the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, the Highways Department, the Hong Kong Police, the Post Office, the Transport Department and the Auxiliary Medical Service.
Ends/Thursday, January 10, 2013
Issued at HKT 17:13
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