Tourists throng tiny Cheung Chau island for Hong Kong’s colourful bun festival

The colour-filled 2024 Bun Carnival in the Hong Kong's island of Cheung Chau will be held 7-16 May. (Reuters)

The colour-filled 2024 Bun Carnival in the Hong Kong's island of Cheung Chau will be held 7-16 May. (Reuters)

The festival features a traditional parade of children in costume of carried on stands above the heads of the crowd in the afternoon. (Reuters)

This is followed by a midnight climbing competition with participants scrambling up towers of buns more than ten meters high.(Reuters)

A child is dressed up as a law enforcement officer during the Bun Festival parade at Cheung Chau island. (Reuters)

The event, also known as the Cheung Chau Jiao Festival, has been celebrated for more than 100 years. (Reuters)

Visitors packed the tiny island of Cheung Chau to watch children parade in costumes and to eat buns stamped with the Chinese characters for 'peace' and 'safety'.(Reuters)

A child is dressed up as Hong Kong's legislator Regina Ip during the Bun Festival parade. (Reuters)

Meanwhile, serpentine queues  were seen outside shops selling steam buns and stores stocked with bun-themed souvenirs.(Reuters)

The origin of the festival is a tale of a plague that hit the island centuries ago, and the inhabitants developed rituals to appease the gods and overcome the plague.(Reuters)