Event guide · Sat 31 Oct 2026
Arts in the Park: giant fairytale puppets take over Causeway Bay for one weekend
Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 November 2026, Victoria Park and the streets of Causeway Bay: Standard Chartered Arts in the Park returns in its largest edition yet, built on classic fairy tales, with an illuminated Night Parade at 8.30pm on the Saturday and a Grand Finale Parade at 2.30pm on the Sunday. Entry is free.
For one weekend in November, Causeway Bay turns into a storybook. Standard Chartered Arts in the Park, organised by Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation, returns on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 November 2026 to Victoria Park and the streets around it, in what the organiser presents as the festival's largest and most comprehensive edition to date. This year's carnival is built on classic fairy tales, among them Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, The Emperor's New Clothes, Jack and the Beanstalk, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp and The Happy Prince, gathered around the virtues of courage, integrity and wisdom. The dates, the parade times and the programme are set out on the festival's official site and the Foundation's event page, and our event listing carries the weekend and the source it was checked against.
What you need to know, in short
The whole weekend is free. No ticket is needed for the carnival in the park, the two parades, the storytelling sessions or the stage performances, and the daytime programme runs on the Central Lawn at Victoria Park on both days: 17 interactive arts booths, storytelling in English and Cantonese, African drumming workshops, 60 live performances and an exhibition of more than 900 pieces of student artwork. Two parades anchor the weekend, an illuminated Night Parade on the Saturday evening and the Grand Finale Parade on the Sunday afternoon. One practical note: some workshops may ask you to sign up, so check the official site before you go rather than assuming everything is walk-up.
The Night Parade: Saturday at 8.30pm
The Night Parade steps off at 8.30pm on Saturday 14 November from the main entrance of Lee Garden One, travels along Yun Ping Road, Pak Sha Road, Lee Garden Road and Kai Chiu Road to Hysan Place, and then returns the way it came. It is the biggest Night Parade in the festival's history: five illuminated giant puppets and 18 twinkling costumes, all created by local professional artists and the highest costume count the event has staged, moving with more than 150 performers, with a juggling team, a marching band and a rope-skipping troupe in the procession. The pavements along the route will be busy well before the start, so the kerbside spots with a clear view are an arrive-early proposition, especially with children in tow.
The Grand Finale Parade: Sunday at 2.30pm
The weekend closes with the Grand Finale Parade at 2.30pm on Sunday 15 November, leaving Victoria Park for Great George Street, passing Sogo and continuing to East Point Road before returning to the park. Ten four-metre-tall puppets, drawn from the same fairy tales, lead 500 young participants, students from around 100 local schools, alongside professional dancers. It is the parade that works most easily for families with small children, in daylight and at an afternoon hour, and it is only half of the puppet story: giant puppets also make surprise appearances around Victoria Park across both days, so a wander through the carnival between the booths can turn into a parade of its own.
A festival the city's students help to build
Arts in the Park is Hong Kong's largest outdoor youth arts festival, launched in 2001 and based at Victoria Park since 2008, and its scale is not only a spectator's matter. The Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation's school programmes bring young people into the making of the weekend, the costumes, the puppets and the more than 900 artworks on show, which is why so much of what you see on the Central Lawn was built in a classroom first. That gives the carnival a different feel from a touring show that arrives finished: the parades are polished, but the work behind them belongs to the city, and a fair share of the crowd is there to spot something a son, a daughter or a student helped to make.
Making a weekend of it
Because the festival is free and the district is the stage, the weekend rewards staying close. Causeway Bay puts both parade routes on your doorstep, lets you drift back to the park between the daytime carnival and the Night Parade, and removes the late trip home after the Saturday procession ends. Our hotels page weighs the districts for event weekends, and the Causeway Bay guide covers the streets the parades pass through. Start with the basics that are already fixed: the dates, the parade times and the two starting points, all confirmed by the organiser. Then leave the rest loose, because a free festival in a public park is best taken as it comes, one booth, one performance and one four-metre puppet at a time.
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