It’s mid-summer, the sun is shining and everyone is in the mood to party. But as usual, it seems like the only people not in the mood are the Hong Kong police force.

The full-moon party planned for Lantau the other week became the latest victim of our party-unfriendly police, forced to cancel weeks after a massive pool party on The Peak was shut down before it even started. Outdoor dance parties have been a sore point with the police for years, and it’s time for a rethink of how everyone – from the cops to the promoters – handles such events.

The Lantau full-moon party didn’t really interest me – it all looked a bit corporate and none of the regular promoters were involved – but I felt bummed for the organisers because they had tried to do everything by the book. They’d sought and received permission from the relevant government departments, but then a few days before the event the Lantau police stamp their feet and say it’s not going to happen, mumbling stuff about public safety and the weather.

Maybe this event was just too heavily promoted and had attracted too much attention. A low-key, invite-only full-moon party went ahead unmolested on Lamma eight weeks before, and the Lamma crew aren’t the kind of people who submit applications to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department. So if you’re organising an outdoor party, do you go just ahead without any official permission and risk a raid or seek permission and risk getting shut down anyway?

The police mindset that outdoor dance events are drug-fuelled manifestations of evil are outdated. The target market of the Lantau party was Champagne-sipping professionals, not ketamine-snorting Kowloon club kids, and they wanted nothing more than to celebrate a summer’s night with a full moon in the sky and sand between the toes.

For all the talk about Singapore being a straight-laced haven of chewing-gum haters, the Lion City has shown a progressive attitude towards dance music events just as it has done with red-light areas. Why can’t we adopt the Singapore model – put some clear guidelines in place and designate some beaches or other outdoor areas for occasional dance parties?