Hundreds of eager visitors queued up overnight for the opening of the Hong Kong Book Fair on Wednesday, but some slammed organisers for chaotic crowd control.
The primary draw for many in the overnight queue outside the Convention and Exhibition Centre was an autograph session with popular local Cantopop girl group Collar, but the queue system sparked heavy criticism.
Among the frustrated early birds was Lucas Wong, a 15-year-old student who arrived at around 2am in the hopes of buying the girl band’s photobook to secure an autograph slot.
Despite the long wait before the event’s 10am opening, a long queue blocked him from getting anywhere near the sales booth. He suspected that other venue entrances had opened up ahead of the official start time.
“The arrangement is an absolute mess … This was my first time at the book fair, and it has been deeply disappointing,” he said.
Left waiting outside one of the centre’s halls for a remaining slot due to crowd control measures, Wong expected he would miss out on a signed copy of the book.
