The 2025 edition of Hong Kong’s Digital Art Fair is officially cancelled, as per an announcement posted on Instagram last Sunday, with organizers attributing it to “reasons beyond its control,” though government officials later revealed that the fair failed to secure sufficient funding.
A statement from Hong Kong’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau published on Monday noted that while the fair had applied for funding from the Mega Arts and Cultural Events Fund, a government-led initiative to bolster Hong Kong as an “East-meets-West center for international cultural exchange.”
However, it lacked “adequate” information for an “assessment of its artistic merits, attractiveness to tourists and economic benefits,” and by the time the application was received, tickets were already rolling out.
Launched in 2021 as the world’s first Web 3.0 fine art fair, Digital Art Fair stood out for its, well, digital focus, namely the creation and collection of NFT art. The upcoming edition was slated to take place at the West Kowloon Cultural District from March 26 through 30, coinciding with other fairs taking part in Hong Kong Art Week, such as Art Basel and Arts Central – both backed by the tourism board’s culture fund.
This comes as the third major event axed from Hong Kong’s art and culture calendar, alongside electronic music festival Creamfields and Photofairs, another digital art-centered event. With the announcement coming just one month shy of its opening date, Digital Art Fair ensured that all ticket holders will be issued full-refunds.