The Puppet Animation Festival is the UK’s oldest and largest annual festival for children and their families, celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2018. Since 2000 over 250,000 people have attended puppetry and film performances, and participated in workshops, at the Puppet Animation Festival. (Puppet Animation Scotland: Puppet Animation Festival Reports/ 2000-2019).
Each year we present 130-160 puppetry and animated film performances and workshops provided by 12-18 leading UK companies, in 50-70 venues throughout Scotland to a projected audience of 7,000 + people. Every Easter these puppet companies travel the length and breadth of the country and its many islands, presenting their work in city centre theatres and arts spaces, urban community and leisure centres, down to the smallest of volunteer-run, remote rural village halls. No venue is too small or too isolated!
It is the willingness of these puppeteers to travel significant distances throughout Scotland and then present work of quality and imagination in venues that local communities trust and support which lies at the core of the festival’s continuing success and durability. Rural audiences recognise and appreciate the effort it takes for artists to present their work at the festival and this acknowledgement creates a very special dynamic during performances, which performers greatly value and consistently remark upon.
ATTENDING THE FESTIVAL
Puppet Animation Festival takes place every year over three weeks during the Easter period. Our programme is announced every year in February, after which you can browse what’s on offer, book tickets and plan your visit. Tickets can be booked directly through our venue partners, and queries should be directed towards them about booking, visiting or show content. To be the first to find out about the programme, you can sign up to our newsletter here.
PERFORMING OR SCREENING WORK AT THE FESTIVAL
Applications open in late Spring/early Summer for artists to pitch their work for Puppet Animation Festival. This process is currently under review and is likely to change in 2022. In the meantime, we are always delighted to hear from artists who wish to let us know about a production they are touring or introduce us to their work. To find out how to let us know about your work, how we make decisions about programming, and the timeline of decision-making, please visit the Perform & Screen page in our ARTISTS section.
PRESENTING WORK AT YOUR VENUE
If you work for a theatre, cinema, arts centre, town or village hall, local council, school or community centre and are interested in programming some of our work, please do drop us a line. Contact Festivals & Projects Manager Aidan Nicol on [email protected] with a bit of information about your venue and she will let you know what is available for booking.