Nottingham’s first-ever puppet festival will be held next year, featuring live performances and a parade.
The Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall have won a grant from Arts Council England of £99,960 to run the event.
Run in partnership with City Arts Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University, it will appear at venues across the city from March 22-25 next year.
Promising entertainment for all ages, the weekend line-up will be packed full of live performances, including a puppet cabaret and a special puppet pop up village in Market Square.
The event will showcase puppet artists from across the UK and abroad, as well as celebrating local puppet makers.
The festival will happen during the run of the National Theatre’s celebrated production of War Horse at the newly refurbished Royal Concert Hall.
Based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo, the stage version of the drama features life-size puppets specially designed by Handspring Puppet Company, which is known for its artistic designs.
The festivities will end with a colourful puppet parade on the final day.
In the months leading up to the event, art residencies will also be held across Nottingham to create large-scale puppets that will parade through the city to greet Joey, the star of War Horse.
David Longford, Creative Learning Manager at the Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall (TRCH) says “This has been in the planning stages for quite some time, but our Grants for the Arts funding ensures that we can create and programme a fun and vibrant festival for all ages that promotes puppetry as an important art form and actively engages with new audiences and different communities all across Nottingham.”
Preparations for the forthcoming festival are already in full swing and the full programme will be available from January.
