Park, Cultural Sites To Close Over Protest Fears

The government has announced that a number of venues operated by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department will close early on Sunday, ahead of an expected protest in Kowloon.

All facilities of Kowloon Park, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and the Hong Kong Space Museum will shut at noon, the government said in a statement.

With the Cultural Centre shutting its doors early, a 3pm performance of the opera "Autumn Sonata" at the Grand Theatre has been cancelled.

The statement also warned that further cultural and leisure facilities could also be closed at short notice "to ensure the safety of venue users".

The government has made similar moves ahead of previous protests, with Kowloon Park also shutting early on October 10 due to a demonstration nearby.

On Saturday afternoon, the Civil Human Rights Front failed to overturn a police ban on a march it was planning to hold from Salisbury Garden, in Tsim Sha Tsui, to the West Kowloon high-speed rail station.

The force has refused to grant permission for a series of anti-government protests in recent weeks, but more often than not, large crowds of people gathered in defiance of the bans.