Hong Kong’s largest annual celebration of the Hungry Ghost Festival will return in September, with new features such as an immersive, interactive theatre show and claw machines to attract younger visitors to the traditional festivities.

But this year’s event will be held at Moreton Terrace Temporary Playground instead of the usual location of Victoria Park, a change that may have an impact on attendance, according to the organiser, the Federation of Hong Kong Chiu Chow Community Organisations.

“We have a committee that includes young people who have given a lot of new ideas about what we can do at the festival. Their ideas tend to resonate with their peers more,” Anven Wu Yim-chung, the federation’s vice-chairman, said on Wednesday.

The festival will be held officially between September 12 and 14, with some activities already taking place in August. The celebrations traditionally fall in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, which began in late August this year, with activities reaching their peak during the middle of the period.

A cornerstone of the Chinese festival is pacifying the spirits of the dead through rites and burning offerings on the street to appease wandering souls, as the period is believed to be a brief window during which spirits from the underworld roam among the living.

The festival, also known as Yu Lan Festival, has been celebrated in Hong Kong since the 1860s and is an important occasion for the local Chiu Chow community, an ethnic group with roots tracing back to mainland China’s Guangdong province.

The eighth edition of the event hosted by the federation will move to Moreton Terrace Temporary Playground from the nearby Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, as the latter will be used for the National Games this year. The organiser expects the Yu Lan event to draw 20,000 to 30,000 attendees – similar to previous years.