Spotlight On YAFies: Lawrence Lee

Lawrence Lee
Event and Exhibition Manager

When did you first take part in Standard Chartered Arts in the Park?
My team and I have been working with HKYAF for over 20 years. My first edition was in 2008, and the collaboration has unfolded ever since. To me, it’s not just a job. It’s more like an annual reunion with an old friend that I would show up for.

Can you describe Standard Chartered Arts in the Park in three phrases?
Wildly magical – The ideas from the artists and young people are out of this world, and our job is to make those wonderful ideas real.

Annual enthusiasm – Schools, volunteers and organisers spend months in workshops and rehearsals to bring this two-day festival at Victoria Park to life.

Priceless smiles – It gives our team goosebumps to see people of all ages smiling because of the space we’ve built for them.

What is the role of you and your team at the event?
We’re the invisible guardians and the skeleton of this huge event.

The public sees the colourful costumes, the incredible performances, the giant puppets. What we’re responsible for is everything that you can’t see but that absolutely cannot go wrong. For example, stage setting and cabling, making sure dozens of booths and the main stage have stable power and sound; road closures and parade route management, which means sitting down with the police and the Transport Department, mapping out the exact timings to close the streets and making sure over a thousand performing students can move in and out safely.

How far in advance does preparation begin for this two-day event?
The public sees the two days. For us, it’s a marathon that runs for months. The most intense stretch is the days right before the event, when we move into Victoria Park and build an entire frame of the carnival from scratch.

What’s the difference between running the carnival inside Victoria Park and the parades out on the streets?
Honestly, they have completely different rhythms!

The carnival inside Victoria Park is like hosting guests at home – the environment is enclosed and familiar. The stage and booths are where they’re supposed to be. The parades feel more like going into a battlefield. Traffic lights, crowds of onlookers, the road is a moving environment, and our sound equipment, illuminated costumes, have to run on wireless and batteries while we’re on the go. Time management is the most challenging part. The road closure window is precise to the minute. The moment the parade ends, we have to clear all equipment, clean up the street, and let the traffic resume in the shortest time possible.

What have you learned from leading such a large team? How do you keep communication effective?
Mutual trust is the key.

When it’s a team of dozens of people, no single person can oversee everything. I break the team into different groups, and I give each group my complete trust to deliver their responsibilities.

In a noisy outdoor environment, we rely mainly on walkie-talkies to communicate. But the most effective communication happens in the briefing before the event starts to get everyone on the same page. Outdoor work is hard work. Telling the team “you’re doing great” does so much more than any strict orders.

What’s the biggest challenge of organising a large-scale public event?
The biggest challenge is finding the balance between joy and absolute safety.
 
Standard Chartered Arts in the Park is a free, open-to-all event, and there are many children on-site. When the parade kicks off, children can easily surge past barriers towards the giant puppets. We are an invisible safety net that protects everyone without ever disrupting the joyful atmosphere of the event. That takes very precise and fast thinking in real time.

Can you share your most nerve-wracking outdoor event experience?
Weather is always the most unpredictable and devastating factor. One time, about half an hour before the parade started, it started to rain heavily. At that point, all the performing students were already in costume and the artists and their giant puppets were already ready to go. Because of their size resisting the wind, a gust can bring them down easily. In the end, the organisers had to call it off and we had to scramble in the pouring rain to retrieve all the equipment and artworks.

It was really frustrating.

 
What gives you the greatest sense of fulfilment in this work?
I have a stage management background. In theatres, we create an entire world inside a controlled black box. What’s fascinating about Standard Chartered Arts in the Park is that it takes all that same professional expertise out onto the streets.

When I see the students’ artworks coming alive from the paper draft, moving safely through the streets of Causeway Bay under our watch; and when I see thousands of children and parents lighting up with the experience because of a stage or installation we built, in that moment, every exhausting feeling in the pouring rain or under a blazing sun just disappears.

The greatest reward in this work is using my skills to realise others’ creativity and seeing the joy it brings.