Hongkongers watch Mong Kok street artists’ deafening, tearful farewell before iconic pedestrian zone closure
As planned, at 10pm police broadcast messages asking entertainers and audience members to leave colourful area
Throngs of Hongkongers, tourists and buskers flocked to Mong Kok’s famous pedestrian zone on Sunday night for one last hurrah before it was to be closed for good while police officers fanned out in large numbers to ensure the night would not turn ugly.
The singing and farewell speeches were more deafening than ever, as performers tried their best to outdo one another to entertain their fans a final time at the iconic area – along a 500-metre stretch of Sai Yeung Choi Street South – that had captured the imagination of tourists and local residents alike for nearly two decades.
Street artists wrapped up their performances with “farewell” karaoke songs, weaving in forlorn farewell messages as well as tearful embraces.
Elderly couples and their friends re-enacted their younger years with cha-cha style dancing on the street, as others scrambled to take selfies with the zone’s best-known personalities.
But when the clock struck 10pm, there were to be no encores for street performers who were forced to give up the space to vehicular traffic again.
Indeed, shortly after 10pm, police officers and personnel from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department started urging performers and pedestrians to return to the pavements and give way to motorists. Most cooperated.
