There are good reasons for the venue's popularity, City Hall Senior Manager Maggie Pang said.

Conveniently located in the heart of Central, the well-equipped facility provides excellent services - and local performing groups are eager to take advantage of them.

World-class stage facilities

"With world-class acoustics and stage facilities, the Concert Hall and Theatre have become a platform for many performing companies, both local and overseas," Ms Pang said.

Although it was constructed in the 1960s, developers meticulously researched the best materials for sending and absorbing sound for the Concert Hall in the Low Block.

Even today, the 1,448-seat Concert Hall has excellent sound transmission. With a choir stall that can accommodate up to 60 standing singers, the stage is suitable for symphony, chamber, recital, opera and chorus performances.

Its multi-purpose design also makes it great for other performing art forms, such as dance, drama and Chinese opera, Ms Pang added.

The Theatre, with 463 seats, is ideal for smaller-scale stage productions. Its unique design narrows the gap between the stage and the audience, enabling easy interaction between performers and theatre-goers.

It is also equipped with a cinema screen and projection facilities that are readily available for film screening.

Close partnership with performing groups

According to Ms Pang, City Hall has developed close relationships with performing groups over the years.

"The City Hall has witnessed the birth of many performing companies and their subsequent growth to maturity," Ms Pang noted.

Innomine Chorale is one of its regulars. It has been hiring the venue for its performances since 1978.

The Chorale's Programme Coordinator, Karen Sung, noted: "We love giving our performances here because of its excellent acoustics, reasonable hiring fee, convenient location and, most importantly, the quality services of its staff.

"They always give us valuable advice on ticket issues and also attach great importance to our requests and suggestions," Ms Sung added.

Hong Kong Oratorio Society, established in 1956, is another local singing group which has become a close partner of City Hall.

"There are other bigger venues available in Hong Kong. However, we find that giving performances in a bigger venue sometimes may put us under pressure because of ticket-sale issues," said Simon Lo, the Society's Concert Manager.

"The seating capacity of the City Hall's Concert Hall and Theatre is excellent for a classical music singing group like ours."

Facing keen competition from new cultural venues, City Hall has introduced a number of enhancements recently to boost its facilities and services.

They include the transformation of its Reference Library into a specialised library on business and industry, and a series of renovations to improve its indoor facilities.

Another project will be launched in May to turn its Exhibition Hall into a multi-purpose venue which will be able to accommodate two functions at the same time.

"While respecting the need to preserve the City Hall's quality architecture, we will continue to modernise its equipment and to upgrade our service to meet the ever-growing demands of our hirers and patrons," Ms Pang concluded.