In the run-up to the Ocean Park Halloween Fest, Asia’s largest Halloween celebration, Ocean Park is launching an open call for brave and energetic souls to fill nearly 2,000 seasonal positions, a 40% increase from the previous year. The Park is looking for 1,000 Halloween performers, 400 backstage crew members, and more than 500 frontline and logistical staff to join this year’s team to help create the creepiest and most exciting all-day-and-night Halloween event in town. A series of “Talent Hunt” recruitment campaigns will be held from 15 June, with interviews scheduled for different timeslots and venues according to the type of position, and the talented people selected will work at Ocean Park from August to November. Positions this year pay up to HK$140 an hour, which can amount to over HK$40,000 a month on the top end of the scale. Talented people with outstanding performance will be rewarded with as much as 20% in bonus and a chance to become a permanent staff of “Hong Kong People’s Park”.
Eva Au Yeung, Events & Entertainment Director of Ocean Park, said, “In our previous Halloween recruitment campaigns, referrals mainly came from past colleagues or people in the same industry. In fact, this is our first year holding such a large-scale recruitment event, and we hope we can draw in fresh blood to mix with our seasoned veterans. As an annual event wildly popular among our guests, Ocean Park’s Halloween celebration is actually entering into its 14th year, and last year, we ran Halloween Fest all-day-and-night for the first time, taking the event to a new level. This year, we are in for an even bigger celebration, hence the record-high in the number of staff to be recruited and variety of positions on offer. We welcome all talented people with a passion for performing as well as veterans with a history of excellence.”
Among the wide spectrum of job positions, Halloween performers will definitely be the most popular, Eva Au Yeung hinted, “During the audition, candidates will be challenged in three different tests, including scenario acting, role playing, and script interpretation; apart from talent and enthusiasm in performing arts, good team spirit and a sense of responsibility are also important requirements for the candidates. Depending on their job positions, successful performers will be given over 20 hours of training, covering performing arts, interactions with guests, and handling unexpected situations – all to ensure that staff and guests will enjoy a wonderful Halloween experience. As the all day and night Halloween Fest features the scariest haunted houses, as well as fun Halloween attractions and performances for the entire family, performers will have a chance to work in a full spectrum from bringing on the fright, to also learning how to interact with kids.”
Over the years, Ocean Park’s Halloween event has uncovered a long list of talented performers and witty souls filled with spooky talents, and one example is Joey Kwok. “When I was still a student 6 years ago, I jumped at the chance to join Ocean Park’s Halloween cast and was thrilled at getting hired despite my lack of experience. Over the subsequent 5 years, I continued to take part in Halloween events, where I learned about what goes on in both front and backstage,” she said. “I have learned so much in terms of performing, make-up, dealing with unexpected situations and interpersonal communication. Interactions with guests have also led to many unforgettable moments. Upon graduation earlier this year, I joined this big family as a Production Coordinator, responsible for assisting the overall planning of Halloween Fest. To those who want to join this year’s Halloween Fest, my advice for impressing the casting director would be to do all you can to show off your talent and throw yourself into your performance.”
Lok Tsang, now a Costume Supervisor with substantial experience in his field, joined Halloween Fest in 2009 as a part-time Wardrobe Coordinator before becoming a full-time staff 2 years ago. He said, “Ocean Park Halloween Fest features a vast array of themed costumes. It is great fun and gratifying to be part of it. This is a job that requires a sense of creativity to design family friendly, as well as frightening and eye-catching stage costumes, always taking into account whether the performer would be comfortable and flexible whilst in costume; it’s very challenging indeed. As I had not studied fashion or costume design, I was learning on the job. Luckily, I have benefited from many training opportunities and learned a lot about costume and stage make-up, which enabled me to keep up with the ever-rising standards in costume production. I truly hope that anyone who has a passion for stage costume and make-up will grasp this great opportunity and join us.”
Besides the events and entertainment department, other units of Ocean Park are also hiring new staff to further lift the guest experience with excellence in service quality. Timothy Ng, Park Operations Director of Ocean Park, said, “We are looking to hire more staff to ensure everyone, young and old, will enjoy the celebrations throughout the day and night. We will also make specific staffing and guest management arrangements in a number of attractions and performance venues. The aim is to help our guests feel the full force of Halloween fun as they crisscross our giant party.”
To complement the unique atmosphere combining festive fright and family fun, Nick Lee, Senior Food and Beverage Operations Manager, and Gavin Lam, Senior Retail Operations Manager, are leading their own team to inject creativity into restaurant menus and product design respectively. Staff can also get a feel of a different working experience when they serve guests in fun and spooky outfits during the event period. Both hope those aspiring to join the service industry will seek to gain valuable work experience at the unique environs of Ocean Park.
The first phase of recruitment audition will take place in Langham Place on 15 June (Sunday), and the four department representatives from Ocean Park will be on-site to interview applicants on that day (candidates applying for performer positions can register on-site and interviews will be held on a subsequent day). Candidates need to bring their CV and a recent photo for registration. Other phases of the recruitment drive will be held at Eaton Hotel Hong Kong (performers only), The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (dancers only) and at the Labour Department’s Hong Kong East Job Centre (backstage, frontline and logistical positions only). For more details about recruitment events and the interviews, please visit http://halloween.oceanpark.com.hk/tc/recruitment.html.
*Positions to be recruited during Halloween Fest Talent Hunt include:
Events & Entertainment: Performers, Dancers, Stunt Performers, Gymnasts, Extreme Sports Specialists, Halloween Jugglers/Mascots, Singers, Musicians, Parkours/Sliders, Performer Leads, House and Stage Crew, Stage Managers, Area Coordinators, House Coordinators, Roving Escorts, Drivers, Audio/Lighting/Video Technicians, Animatronics Specialists, Dressers/Costume Assistants, Wardrobe Coordinators, Props Masters, Seamstresses, Laundry Assistants
Operations: Rides & Attractions Attendants
Food & Beverage: Food Attendants, Waiters/Waitresses, Cooks
Retail Operations: Retail Helpers
