The Digital Art Fair failed to secure “mega-events” funding for its upcoming 2025 edition, government authorities now say, after its organizers announced on Sunday that it was cancelled due to “reasons beyond its control.”
Hong Kong‘s Culture, Sports, and Tourism Bureau said in a statement on Monday that the Digital Art Fair had applied for funding from its event fund, but failed to provide “adequate” information for an “assessment of its artistic merits, attractiveness to tourists, and economic benefits.” The bureau spokesman added that by the time it had received the application, tickets for the 2025 event had already gone on sale.
Any “event organizer [should] try to prepare sufficient funds for the event before selling tickets to avoid refunds due to a lack of resources to implement the event,” a spokesman said.
Digital Art Fair, which was set to open in March as part of Hong Kong Art Week, had been advertised on the websites of the Hong Kong Tourism Board and InvestHK, a government entity that deals in the promotion of foreign businesses. Advertisements have since been removed from both websites.
The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority told the South China Morning Post that it learned of the news on Monday, adding that it was “of the view that the organizer should properly handle the aftermath of the cancellation.”
The first edition of Digital Art Fair Asia launched in 2021 with a focus on NFTs and augmented and virtual reality experiences. This cancelation follows the news that the inaugural Hong Kong edition of another digital art-centered event, Photofairs, would also not happen.
Earlier this month, the Hong Kong iteration of Creamfields, a popular electronic festival, was cancelled prior to its March 8 opening. Live Nation cited “unforeseen circumstances” in its announcement. The festival was also advertised as a “mega event” by the tourism board; it too have been removed from the board’s online program. Hong Kong government officials have previously described such events as central to the government’s commitment to “promoting Hong Kong as an East-meets-West center for international cultural exchange.”
The slew of cancellations, however, comes in a moment of financial and political flux for Hong Kong. Government officials are expected on Wednesday to unveil a plan to curb spending in its annual budget ahead of a fiscal deficit exacerbated by the year’s slower-than-average economic growth. Per a report by Reuters this week, the Hong Kong government grew at a 2.5 percent pace in 2024, down from 3.2 percent in 2023, with an outlook dimmed by worsening trade relations with the United States.
The economic uncertainty follows an uneasy year for art in the special administrative region. Last week, Hong Kong’s leading opposition party disbanded after 31 years. Its chairman, Lo Kin-hei, said in a statement, “Developing democracy in Hong Kong is always difficult and it’s especially difficult in the past few years.”
Last year’s Hong Kong Art Week opened only days after the enactment of a national security ordinance designed to expand the powers of a broader national security law introduced in 2020 by the Beijing government after pro-democracy protests in the city. Beijing and Hong Kong authorities have described the law as necessary peace-keeping measures.
But critics have denounced the law as a tool for suppressing dissent, one easily extended to the museums and galleries, though its actual impact on Asia’s international art market is still in question. In 2024, the local government afforded Art Basel Hong Kong, another “mega event” per the tourism board, with 15 million Hong Kong dollars ($1.9 million) from its culture fund.
