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Hong Kong's largest outdoor symphonic event of the year, the "Swire Symphony Under The Stars", will take place on November 29.
An audience of 20,000 is expected for the occasion, with music provided by the Hong Kong Philharmonic and star vocalist Corinna Chamberlain under the baton of conductor Perry So.
The event will be held at the New Central Harbourfront, with the spectacular night view of Hong Kong's skyline as the backdrop.
To celebrate the birthdays of three great composers - Wagner, Verdi and Britten - the orchestra will play selected pieces from their popular operas.
Music from popular movies including "James Bond" and "Happy Together" and Hollywood epics will also be played, with the audience encouraged to whistle along to some familiar tunes.
A grand finale will take place to the accompaniment of a fireworks display, ensuring a fitting end to a great evening out.
The concert is signature event of the "Hong Kong: Our Home" Campaign under the "Vibrant Hong Kong" theme.
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Photos of delicious food and exotic drinks taken at restaurants of social enterprise will have a chance of winning the "Travel for Good - Social Enterprise (SE) Photo Competition" organised by the Hong Kong Council of Social Services (HKCSS).
A launch ceremony will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on November 30, with popular comic artist MandyCat in attendance.
The competition calls for photo-stories based on social enterprises so as to promote their products and services to local and overseas tourists.
Photos showing social inclusion, community travel and local culture and heritage can also enter the competition, which will run from November 30 to February 14, 2014. Entries should be uploaded to
www.facebook.com/socialtraveljournalcompetition .
Each photo should be accompanied with a caption of 10 to 100 words in Chinese or English, and each participant can submit up to four digital photos with file sizes from 1MB to 3MB.
Anyone can vote online for the "Most Popular Photo", while a panel of judges will select the winners of six awards for best photo, best in expressing local culture, best for human touch, best in social value, best introduction to SE food and beverage, and best in expressing SE's liveliness.
Details of the competition and fringe activities will be available from November 30 at the website: socialenterprise.org.hk/socialtravel/ .
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Hong Kong's design and creative community will be celebrating the return of the annual DETOUR festival, which runs from November 29 to December 8.
DETOUR 2013's theme is "DETOUR MATTERS - From Microtopias to Social Innovation", and Hong Kong will be showcased as a city with abundant artistic qualities and creative potential.
Organised by the "Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design", DETOUR 2013 events will be held at five locations - PMQ (Plateau 4 at the former Police Married Quarters), Central Oasis gallery in Central, The Hennessy in Wan Chai, Oi! in North Point and Shau Kei Wan Tram Terminus.
The 10-day event will include art installations, exhibitions, workshops, a fashion show and performances by the Brussels-based dance theatre group "Wooshing Machine". Over 100 local and international designers will take part in DETOUR's various core programmes and satellite events.
In addition, four of Hong Kong's iconic trams will be decked out in DETOUR themes, namely DETOUR Eatery, DETOUR Classroom, DETOUR Black Box and DETOUR Music Box. Tickets for the tram programmes can be obtained through the DETOUR website.
Two other attractions are the DETOUR Marathon, an eight hour non-stop seminar by local and overseas designers covering different urban perspectives of Hong Kong, and DETOUR Pop-up, at which 50 designers and brand owners will showcase their products. Both events will be held at The Hennessy, 256 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai.
For programme details, please visit www.detour.hk or www.facebook.com/detourhk .
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The Department of Educational Psychology of the Chinese University of Hong Kong will offer four seminars for parents to support their primary school-aged children's Chinese language learning and developmental needs. Enrollment is free.
In total there are four seminars of three hours each focusing on a different subject. The first seminar looks at enriching oral language development, and parents will be given guidance to help their children build vocabulary and improve verbal expressions.
The second focuses on enhancing word identification skills. Parents will learn how to help their children transcribe verbal expressions in written words. Training in the first and second modules will take place on November 30. The enrollment deadline is November 29.
The third seminar looks at promoting reading fluency and comprehension. Parents will be given training to help their children pick out the key points in an article and develop the habit of reading aloud.
The fourth seminar focuses on developing positive parental skills to help children with learning difficulties. Training for the third and fourth modules will be held on December 14, and the enrollment deadline is December 13.
The training will be given at the university's Sha Tin campus. For enquiries please call 3943 1129, or visit the website www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/~tdspld .
The seminars take place under the "READ & WRITE: a Jockey Club Learning Support Network-Parent Education Seminars".
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Last but not least, dig out your buckets and spades for Sandcastle FUNday at Shek O Beach on December 1 from 1.30pm to 5pm.
Organised by the Hong Kong Award for Young People (AYP), the event seeks to promote social cohesion, care and mutual help in our community.
To prepare for the fun day, members of the AYP attended a half-day training workshop to learn a few tricks about working with sand on the beach. On event day they will assist the participants in sculpting the sand into spectacular castles and fortress.
Sandcastle FUNday is open to people of all ages and offers family members a great opportunity to have some fun on the beach before winter arrives. Participants are invited to bring toys and accessories to decorate their sand castles.
For enquiries, please call 2157 8632.
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All these events support the "Hong Kong: Our Home" public participation campaign, which aims to inject positive energy into society, foster social cohesion and promote care, mutual help and solidarity in the community.
More than 245 Partner Organisations have so far pledged support for the Campaign.
Altogether, the Government and Partner Organisations are organising more than 1 000 events/activities under the four themes of the Campaign from the end of April to the end of December this year.
Full details of the Campaign can be found on the website www.hkourhome.gov.hk.
Ends/Sunday, November 24, 2013
Issued at HKT 11:00
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