One stand was selling T-shirts featuring a rubber duck with a swimming cap stamped with the peace sign.

"We designed this because of the rubber duck fad and crossed it with the festival. Both give the message of peace and joy," said designer Wong Wai-yin, 25, who is running the stall with his brother and sister.

Last year, he said they sold 90 per cent of their stock during the three-day festival.

This year they have about 600 T-shirts in different designs, at HK$89 each, plus other souvenirs, like a postcard that reads "Keep calm and climb on".

Business yesterday morning was down on last year. They were not helped by the rain, but they also pointed to new crowd-control barriers set up in front of the stalls on the main road by police.

The bun shortage of two years ago was ancient history thanks to one of the oldest bakeries investing in a dough-making machine and doubling its manpower.

It meant Kwok Kam Kee pushed up its bun production by two-thirds.

"With the help of technology this year we will be selling more buns," said Lam Kin, one of the bakery's 14 bun masters.

Between them, they were turning out 2,000 buns per hour and reckoned they had made 10,000 buns yesterday.

Customers could choose lotus, red bean or sesame fillings, and at HK$8 each, they were HK$1 up from last year.