Hong Kong Sevens party defies crisis

Liquidity, at least of the alcoholic variety, was still flowing freely at the weekend's Hong Kong Sevens, but the global economic crisis dimmed the usual exuberance in the corporate boxes.

For three days, costumed revellers packed the stadium's South Stand - the beating heart of what has become one of Asia's biggest parties - and the drinking and dancing were as raucous and hedonistic as ever.

Tim Pottle, who works in Hong Kong for one of the under-pressure global financial giants, said the party was in full swing.

"It was pretty much as chaotic as ever," he said.

Pottle had sat behind a group of men dressed as ten green bottles, although they were down to nine after one of the troupe had failed to materialise after a heavy session the previous night. They still sang the children's song in full.

But the dire economic background to the tournament was never too far from people's minds.

The big screen where fans could post messages on Saturday afternoon flashed a spoof charity appeal: "Collecting donations for a 'bail out the banker' fund".

Another group of revellers had dressed as veteran British TV presenter Jimmy Savile, famous for his 1980s TV show "Jim'll Fix It" where he fulfilled the dreams of youngsters who wrote in. "The credit crunch: Jim'll fix it for us," read their sign.

However, the official corporate boxes, in the past scenes of lavish hospitality, were more low-key this year.

Some of the banks who have received big bailouts during the crisis either dropped out or scaled down the party.

Royal Bank of Scotland, which has received more than 29 billion US dollars in bailouts from the British government, said its hospitality was a "fraction" of that in previous years "in recognition of the very different market environment we now operate in."

Other corporate boxes were less extravagantly decorated this time around, although leading Asian brokerage CLSA still kept its dancing girls, but switched from a DJ playing records to an iPod.

Laura Derry, a spokeswoman for Ironmonger Events, which organises some of the most popular hospitality functions at the Sevens, said before the tournament they had changed some packages in anticipation of tougher sales.

But she added that uptake for its Bollinger champagne tent - a favourite Saturday night party - which had initially been slow, had surged in the days leading up the Sevens.

"I think people have been so concerned about the economy and job security. Also, maybe a number of people used to be taken as clients. Now they have to pay (themselves)," she told AFP. The pedestrianised streets of the main entertainment district, Lan Kwai Fong, were packed late into Saturday night, with four Teletubbies among the crowds crooning to pop classics.

Unusually for the safe city, violence erupted in the seedier Wanchai district the night before the tournament began, a fight the South China Morning Post described as a "vicious rolling brawl." One former Fijian Sevens player was convicted of assaulting a police officer during the melee, the Post said. Fiji triumphed in Sunday's final over South Africa after three gruelling, and largely dry, days of action on and off the field, although the party-goers were not always fully focused on the action.

"Apparently there was some rugby being played somewhere," said Pottle.

HONG KONG, Monday, AFP