Hong Kong has begun a five-day long weekend for the Easter and Ching Ming Festival holidays starting on Friday. Authorities anticipate busy travel, both arriving and departing, during this period.
Mainland China will observe the Ching Ming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day, from Friday to Sunday.
For residents of Hong Kong as well as visitors from the mainland and other locations, the South China Morning Post has compiled a list of key activities open to the public during this festive time.
Coffee festival
The popular coffee festival returns to the West Kowloon Cultural District with more than 80 brands from around the world, featuring interactive elements through a curated programme under themes such as music, family, wellness, pets and more.
The organiser has also introduced, for the first time, a competition that brings together coffee and cocktails, pushing the boundaries of the two different types of drinks with baristas and mixologists.
The four-day “Coffee Hong Kong 2026” festival starts on Friday at the Great Lawn at the WestK Art Park, where pets are welcome. The event is ticketed.
Con-Con Hong Kong
The Convention for Connection, or Con-Con, which features prominent pop culture icons such as hit franchises Gundam and Godzilla, will be held at AsiaWorld-Expo on Saturday and Sunday.
Japanese star Cocomi, daughter of famed actor Takuya Kimura, was appointed ambassador for the festival. She is known as a flautist and voice actress, and will be present at the opening ceremony.
Local representatives in the festival line-up include singers such as Anson Kong from popular boy band Mirror and indie-pop sensation Tyson Yoshi.
The event is ticketed.
Doraemon show
A sakura-themed show featuring Japanese manga character Doraemon is due to debut on Friday at Hysan Place shopping centre in Causeway Bay.
The show, dubbed “100 per cent Doraemon Sakura Fest”, is organised by the Hong Kong-based creative studio AllRightsReserved. It features a pink and sakura-shaped robotcat Doraemon in a ticketed event that has a handicraft zone, a pop-up store, merchandise tailor-made for the event, capsule toy stations, photo booths and an indoor game.
The event ends on April 19.
Hong Kong International Film Festival
The annual festival is celebrating its 50th anniversary by bringing together 215 films from 71 countries and regions, including 11 world premieres, four international premieres and 49 Asian premieres.
A special exhibition will run at City Hall in Central to mark the festival’s golden jubilee, which will be free of charge for visitors and include daily guided tours showcasing photographs of master filmmakers and film stars, archival documents and more.
Films will be shown at City Hall, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, East Kowloon Cultural Centre, the M+ Museum in the West Kowloon Cultural District, the Hong Kong Arts Centre and cinemas across the city.
This year’s edition of the festival will also feature a specially curated programme, “Revisiting Chinese Cinema: The Beginning of a New Journey”, spotlighting 12 Chinese-language classics, including Zhang Yimou’s Red Sorghum and Tsui Hark’s The Butterfly Murders.
The festival and the exhibition will close on April 12.
Rainy days
The weather is forecast to be wet and humid throughout the five-day break under the influence of an easterly airstream and a brewing trough of low pressure, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.
There will be showers and a few squally thunderstorms over the coastal region of Guangdong on Saturday, followed by occasional showers on Sunday and Monday.
The temperature will range from 22 to 29 degrees Celsius between Friday and Tuesday.
