The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Riding High Together Festival opens today (19 April) at Sha Tin Racecourse and Penfold Park. Visitors immersed themselves in an array of edutainment activities under the festival’s theme “Let’s have fun across generations”, while witnessing a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title being set. The Club also announced at the festival four charities projects that promote intergenerational harmony.

The festival – now in its fifth year – allows the Club to reach out to the community and instil a positive “can-do” spirit among them, while promoting continuous development as well as intergenerational harmony. It is one of Hong Kong’s most popular Easter festivals for the family and around 150,000 visitors attended the last four festivals.

A Guinness World Records title for “Largest origami lesson”

One of the festival’s highlights was an attempt at a Guinness World Records title for “Largest origami lesson”. This challenge aims to inspire the Hong Kong community with a positive “can-do” spirit and also demonstrates how the Club works together with the community for a better future.

Witnessing the challenge were Club Chairman Dr Anthony W K Chow; Chief Executive Officer Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges; Executive Director, Corporate Planning, Branding and Membership, Scarlette Leung; Executive Director, Charities and Community, Leong Cheung; Secretary for Labour and Welfare and Commission on Children Vice-chairperson Dr Law Chi-kwong; Manchester United legend Andy Cole; as well as representatives from participating non-governmental organisations, including Hong Kong Young Women’s Christian Association Chief Executive Yvonne Yeung, St. James’ Settlement Chief Executive Officer Josephine Lee and Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Chief Executive Albert Su.

More than 1,000 participants took part in the challenge under the guidance of renowned origami artist Kade Chan. After verification, with 1,073 origami flowers made, Guinness World Records adjudicator Louis Jelinek confirmed that a Guinness World Records title had been earned for “Largest origami lesson”, and presented the Club with a certificate. 

Dr Chow acknowledged the efforts of the partnering organisations and schools, and reminded the participants about the spirit of continuous development, “This is now five records out of five that we have set at The Riding High Together Festival, with a total of about 5,000 young people taking part. I hope your achievement today will encourage festival goers to unleash their potential and improve.”

Prior to the challenge, Club CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges encouraged the participants and shared with everyone the rationale of the theme of this year’s Festival, “Let’s have fun across generations”, “We want to connect the generations - young and old, parents, grandparents and children – as they share the joy of learning. In this way we hope to promote harmony and respect, and so help our community progress together for a better future,” he said.

Charities projects that promote intergenerational harmony through sport and drama activities

The Club announced four charities projects at the festival, namely, the Jockey Club Generation Connect Project, the Jockey Club Once Under the Lion Rock Oral History Theatre Programme, the St James’ Settlement Jockey Club “Super Senior, Flash Mob” and the Jockey Club “A Tale of Two Generations” Theatre Project. Riding on cross-sectorial collaboration, these projects help strengthen intergenerational harmony through building social connectivity for the elderly, and promoting better mutual respect, recognition and collaboration among different age groups. Total donations for the four projects amount to some HK$62 million with over 78,000 direct beneficiaries involved. Club Chairman Dr Anthony W K Chow, Secretary for Labour and Welfare and Commission on Children Vice-chairperson Dr Law Chi-kwong; Elderly Commission Chairman Dr Lam Ching-choi; as well as representatives of the partner agencies attended the project announcement ceremony.

“To bridge generation gaps and facilitate the community’s long-term development, the Club has been striving over the years to promote intergenerational harmony through a range of different programmes,” said Dr Chow. “In collaboration with various sectors in the community, these intergenerational programmes aimed at encouraging communications between the older and younger generations, enhancing understanding on each other values, needs and concerns, as well as promoting intergenerational harmony.”

Aligned with the Club’s four strategic focus areas in charities contribution, namely, “Elderly”, “Youth”, “Sports” and “Arts, Culture and Heritage”, the Club’s Charities Trust has been collaborating with academic and community partners to implement four projects. The Jockey Club Generation Connect Project offers a wide range of cross-generational activities to enhance intergenerational harmony and promote healthy ageing; the Jockey Club Once Under the Lion Rock Oral History Theatre Programme engages the elderly through an oral history drama production, helps the younger generation gain a better understanding of the community’s development and recognise the elderly’s contributions to society; the St James’ Settlement Jockey Club “Super Senior, Flash Mob” builds a group of young-old ambassadors to promote regular exercise and spread positive exercising messages to the elderly; and the Jockey Club “A Tale of Two Generations” Theatre Project fosters primary school students’ empathy towards the elderly  through interactive dramas portraying daily-life scenes of the elderly.

Horse encounters and edutainment activities for enjoyment across generations

The three-day festival features over 70 edutainment activities in ten zones arranged around five themes: Horse Encounters, Inspiration & Fun, Let’s be Active, Snap & Share, and Live Performances.

Visitors can get up close and personal with horses at Penfold Park, which has been transformed into an equestrian centre. Local riders demonstrate their equestrian skills. Visitors can also watch grooming and horse care demonstrations, enjoy pony rides and pose for photos with the adorable and cute Shetland ponies. These activities highlight the Club’s efforts to promote equestrian sport in the community.

This racing season also marks the 40th anniversary of Sha Tin Racecourse. Visitors can take a trip down memory lane, or view a miniature replica of Sha Tin Racecourse's Parade Ring, which signifies strong bonds between the racecourse and the local community.

Football fans are able to meet Manchester United legend Andy Cole at the festival. Coaches from Manchester United Soccer School are also present to share their football skills with everyone. There is also an amazing rope skipping performance by the Hong Kong Rope Skipping Delegation and leaders of JC Youth Football Leadership Scheme.

At the “DIY Together” zone, children aged 15 or below can apply their creativity in a range of workshops to make crafts themed around Easter and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics). These workshops encourage collaboration between parents and their children and enhance children’s problem-solving abilities. For eggs-tra Easter fun, specially designed festive games can also be found in the “Easter Fun” zone for festival-goers of all ages to enjoy.  

The Hong Kong Jockey Club
Founded in 1884, The Hong Kong Jockey Club is a world-class racing club that acts continuously for the betterment of our society. The Club has a unique integrated business model, comprising racing and racecourse entertainment, a membership club, responsible sports wagering and lottery, and charity and community contribution. Through this model, the Club generates economic and social value for the community and supports the Government in combatting illegal gambling. In 2017/18, the Club made a record return to the Government of HK$22.6 billion in duty and profits tax and contributed HK$1.2 billion to the Lotteries Fund. Approved charity donations were HK$4.2 billion. The Club is Hong Kong's largest single taxpayer and one of the city's major employers. Its Charities Trust is also one of the world's top ten charity donors. The Club is always "riding high together for a better future" with the people of Hong Kong.