Hong Kong Book Fair: early birds slam chaotic queues to meet girl band Collar
‘This was my first time at the book fair, and it has been deeply disappointing,’ one fan says on opening day for city’s annual book fair
Hong Kong’s biggest annual book fair opened on Wednesday, with many exhibitors launching new offerings to improve business while fans hoping to see a local girl group complained about poor crowd control.
Hundreds of fans of Cantopop group Collar said chaos broke out after they waited overnight for autographs only to miss their chance as queues intersected.
“The arrangement is an absolute mess … This was my first time at the book fair, and it has been deeply disappointing,” said 15-year-old Lucas Wong, who arrived at the Hong Kong Book Fair at around 2am to buy the group’s photobook to secure an autograph time.
Despite the long wait before the event’s 10am opening, a queue blocked him from getting anywhere near the sales booth.
Left waiting outside one of the centre’s halls for a remaining slot, Lucas said he expected he would miss out on a signed copy of the book.
Another student, surnamed Ng, who had queued from about 3am to buy the same photo album during his second book fair, expressed similar frustrations and slammed the organiser’s handling of the queues.