[Hidden Agenda] The unattainable entertainment licence

As the helmsman of renowned local indie music venue Hidden Agenda, Hui Chung-wo is no stranger to inspections from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD).

But one Tuesday night (7th March, 2017), while a Quebec-based band, Braids was performing, staffers from the FEHD and the Lands Department - initially disguised among the audience - suddenly put on their uniforms, before police arrived outside the venue. This was a rare occurrence.

Now in its fourth location, the current incarnation of Hidden Agenda only started operating last December. Yet it has only taken three months for the FEHD to focus its attention on the venue. Uncharacteristically, the department also deployed an “intelligence unit” to purchase advance tickets, and arranged for a team to be present at the scene.

This all happened because Hidden Agenda did not possess a place of public entertainment licence - the same licence that Cantopop star Leon Lai and Japanese musician Yoshiki could not get their hands on. So what exactly is this license?

An licence that precludes music venues

Born in a tiny unit inside Choy Lee Industrial Building, Kwun Tong, Hidden Agenda has been in operation for over eight years, staging over hundreds of gigs for local and international independent artists and bands, establishing itself as a landmark of Hong Kong’s independent music scene. But thanks to the government’s policies on industrial buildings, the venue has already relocated three times.

Hidden Agenda was forced to leave its first location after the site was acquired by a conglomerate under the government’s Industrial Building Revitalisation Scheme. Both its second and third incarnations ended in divorce because the respective landlords feared the imposition of a government encumbrance order.

According to the Places of Public Entertainment Ordinance, any venue staging “entertainment events” - including concerts, film screenings, exhibitions, drama performances and dance parties regardless of whether an entrance fee is charged - must apply for either a place of public entertainment licence or a one-time temporary place of public entertainment licence.

Currently, apart from cinemas and theatres, only 135 venues in Hong Kong possess a place of public entertainment licence. New Ears found that only three specialised live music venues possess the licence - HMV Cafe in Causeway Bay, Hard Rock Cafe Hong Kong in Central, and Mei Ho House in Shek Kip Mei.

As for the rest of the licensees, 80 are gaming arcades such as Jumpin’ Gym, 36 are exhibition spaces, community centres or schools, and eight are large performing venues such as Macpherson Stadium and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Jockey Club Auditorium.

The process of applying for the licence involves authorities such as the Fire Services Department, the Lands Department, the Buildings Department and the Planning Department. Even if only one of these departments raised an objection, the licence would not be approved. Industry observers remark that applying for the licence is costly in terms of finances and manpower, while approval is not guaranteed. And once the licence is granted, it can also be subjected to conditions imposed by the FEHD, which would reduce the operational flexibility of a live house.

All in all, these factors deter the music industry from applying for place of public entertainment licences.

Industrial buildings: An original sin

Because of concerns over rent, Hidden Agenda has drifted for the past eight years within the post-industrial neighbourhoods of Kwun Tong and Ngau Tau Kok, now home to band rooms. Person-in-charge Hui reiterated his stance last week on the venue’s Facebook page: “Hidden Agenda has always tried its hardest to operate legally.”

Hui lamented that land lease restrictions have left the venue with “nowhere to go,” because the lease of the building in which it is situated prohibits use of units for “non-industrial purposes.”

“Hidden Agenda has always tried its hardest to operate legally”

Last year, then-secretary for development Chan Mo-po told the Legislative Council that - from the perspective of fire safety - it was unacceptable to stage commercial activities in industrial buildings that would attract a crowd of visitors. The Fire Department argued that if an industrial accident broke out, visitors - especially children, the elderly, or the disabled - may not fully comprehend the inherent dangers inside industrial buildings and know how to escape. Therefore, the government must impose strict regulations on the flow of visitors inside industrial buildings.

The most direct way for Hidden Agenda to legally operate as a public entertainment venue in an industrial building would be to amend its land lease. However, the venue’s owner would have to obtain approval from the entire building - asking every single landlord to surrender their rights to use the land for industrial purposes - before forking out a hefty fee to apply for a change in land use.

Even if some landlords in the building cooperated through an owners’ incorporation committee, it would be impossible to ask every single one of them to surrender their industrial rights - just so a live music venue would be able to survive.

Moreover, revising the terms of a land lease does not guarantee successful application of a public entertainment license. Hui told New Ears the FEHD can demand that venues undergo costly or challenging renovation works in order to meet government criteria.

For example, the department has asked Hidden Agenda to create a “buffer” floor - separating the industrial and non-industrial floors of the building - and construct a large number of washrooms to accommodate audience numbers. Hui says these are impossible requests according to the venue’s floor plan.

Furthermore, after Hidden Agenda’s current rental contract ends, its landlord has the right of refusing to welcome the same tenant. After having spent millions of dollars refurbishing the landlord’s property for the sake of an entertainment license, Hui may have to seek another venue in a few years’ time, going through the exact same struggles. Is this risk worth taking?

A letter of no objection

To avoid taking this risk, Hidden Agenda asked lawmaker Edward Yiu for solutions. Yiu’s recommendation was to obtain a short-term letter of no objection from the District Lands Office.

The letter would allow the site to be used for non-industrial purposes without an amendment in the terms of its land lease. A senior surveyor from the Lands Department would inspect whether only minor refurbishments are required for an exemption to be granted to the venue.

Yet applying for an exemption is not easy. The assessment criteria used by the Lands Department’s surveyors are not disclosed to the public. As part of the executive branch, the department has a responsibility of protecting the interests of the Hong Kong government as a “private landlord”. It has no obligation to act fairly or with transparency. Neither the public nor even the Legislative Council can force it to disclose the terms it adds to any given land lease, whether it pursues any given breaches, or the guidelines on granting exemptions.

Moreover, a senior counsel has claimed that the system of exemptions leads to a conflict of interest. As rents in industrial buildings are significantly lower than those in commercial buildings, tenants of commercial buildings and shopping malls would be unhappy if the government allowed certain industrial buildings to be used as entertainment venues. These vested interests have implications for the survival of Hidden Agenda.

Government apathy

Paradoxically, since a good number of departments are involved in the procedure of applying for a public entertainment licence, each of them end up putting the blame on one another.

Lawmaker Yiu says that the government has a duty to assist cultural groups such as Hidden Agenda so as to ensure they are operating effectively and under safe circumstances. However, the FEHD insists that it is only responsible for enforcing the law and issuing licences, the Lands Department only governs lease issues, the Planning Department only looks after city planning issues, and the Fire Services Department only takes care of safety. None of the departments have the power or the determination to change current regulations to provide a new ecosystem governing industrial buildings.

The night the FEHD raided Hidden Agenda, an officer told Hui: “We hope you will cease to operate.”

“If the Lands Department is forbidding you [the FEHD] from granting a licence to us, why don’t you go talk to them instead?” replied an agitated Hui. “If you know live music is forbidden at industrial buildings, why are you only stopping us instead of working to solve the problem?”

“If the Lands Department is forbidding you from granting a licence to us, why don’t you go talk to them instead?”

Although officers from the police, the FEHD and the Lands Department initially arrived in full force, in the end none of them wanted to shoulder the responsibility of dealing with the core issue in question. Half an hour later, they left, one by one, until only a single FEHD officer remained at the scene to take down Hui’s ID number and issue a “verbal warning”.

“Let me get out of here”, read the look on his face. “I’ve already told you, this is not the responsibility of our department,” he sulked.

By that point, the pitiful officer was fending for himself, abandoned on Kwun Tong’s gloomy streets. Every local musician, artist and cultural activist has felt the same.

Translated by Kylie Lee, Elson Tong, Paul Benedict Lee and Karen Cheung @ Still / Loud.
Original Chinese Text by Godric Leung @ New Ears Music