Hong Kong hopes to host Brazil’s national football team at Kai Tak Stadium, the city’s finance chief has said as the South American country’s traditional Carnival festival made its debut in the city. Speaking at the opening ceremony of “Extravaganza! When Brazil Meets Hong Kong” on Friday, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said the event would help to deepen “cross-cultural connections” as he pitched the city as Asia’s events capital. “I’m glad that this festival has brought energy and joy to communities across the city,” he said. “You are helping to enrich our cultural landscape and deepen cross-cultural connections.” Chan said that the government was committed to strengthening Hong Kong’s role as Asia’s events capital, as he highlighted a slew of events set to be hosted at the recently opened Kai Tak Stadium. “More than concerts and rugby, we are welcoming a number of top-class football matches there. I certainly hope we can host the Brazilian national football team sometime soon.” The three-day cultural festival launched at AIA Vitality Park on Friday and includes shows by Brazilian dance performers and appearances by top footballers from South America, with national food and drink being served up for the occasion. Fifty Brazilian nationals also helped with the event’s development. Among the performers was a 50-strong samba troupe that showed off their moves at Hong Kong Disneyland’s parade last Saturday. The cultural festival was also attended by Brazil’s deputy consul general for the city and envoys from Austria, the Philippines and Thailand. Stefan Matzinger, director of Extravaganza!, said he hoped that every day of the event would attract 8,000 visitors, with the grounds able to accommodate 1,200 people at a time. He said that he had invested HK$10 million (US$1.3 million) of his own money into the festival, calling it a “start-up” and adding that he hoped it would become a recurring annual event, with further ambitions of taking it across Asia. Entry to the three-day extravaganza is free. Among those attending were Brazilian pilots Daniel Daros, 45, who has lived in Hong Kong for 10 years, and 56-year-old Luis Felipe. The pair said that while the city’s Brazilian community was not especially large, they hoped the festival would help Hongkongers become more familiar with their culture. “We hope to get some locals to love it because it's a different energy, and the way that we [Brazilians] party is different from the way that they do,” Felipe said. “But we’re also very diverse in Brazil; we are a mix of Japanese, Italians, Spanish, Germans, and so forth. “So that is our goal here, that they’re open to accepting having fun in a different way, give them a taste of the Brazilian carnival.” The Hong Kong government has doubled down on its efforts to promote the city as the region’s premier hub for mega-events, in a bid to attract more overseas visitors and boost the local economy.