Smethwick Puppetry Festival is back!
We’re excited to announce that Smethwick Puppetry Festival is back in 2025, and it’s going to be even bigger and better than last year!
Following the success of our inaugural festival in 2024, Smethwick Puppetry Festival 2025 will be taking place across 10 community venues in Smethwick during half term, from the 15th to 23rd of February.
You can expect wonderful puppet shows for children and families, performances for teens and adults, puppetry workshops, Q&A panels, an exhibition and more from some of the UK’s leading puppetry theatre companies. There’s something for everyone to enjoy, whatever your age.
Highlights include the world premiere of The Stuff of Life by The Object Project, an unconventional puppetry show for teens and adults that explores the day-to-day, angst-ridden experience of living, loving, lying and dying, told entirely using household objects. Youngsters can enjoy a wide variety of shows, from the West African tale of Anansi and the Lost Sun to a thrilling world adventure told out of a tiny suitcase with Suitcase Stories. Have a go at making your own puppets and cardboard theatres in the drop-in workshops, and be amazed by the unique, Grandly Strange automata exhibition at Thimblemill Library.
Local venues participating in the festival include Smethwick Heritage Centre, the Dorothy Parkes Centre, Brushstrokes Community Project, Lightwoods Park and House, Smethwick Library, Thimblemill Library, West Smethwick Park, Bear Bookshop, Bearwood Community Hub at Bearwood Baptist Church and St Hilda’s Community Hall.
To keep the festival affordable and accessible, all events are free or “Pay What You Can”, meaning that you choose how much to pay. There will be the option to pay in advance or at the events.
Booking information will be released in January. In the meantime, check out the 2025 programme and read about the inaugural 2024 festival by clicking on the buttons below.
Smethwick Puppetry Festival is brought to you by Black Country Touring, supported by players of the People’s Postcode Lottery, Arts Council England and Sandwell Council.
With thanks to our partners: Lightwoods Park & House and Friends of Thimblemill Library.
Artwork by Sakab Bashir. Photograph © Anand Chhabra, 2024.
