All the Puppet Festivals! June in Prague
- Leah Gaffen
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
How many puppet festivals would you guess a country of 10 million people could support?
According to the Czech Loukar (Puppeteer) magazine, there are 26 puppet festivals in the Czech Republic taking place in 2025. As with so many things in the Czech Republic, this is a definite underestimation. I know of several smaller festivals that did not make their list, nor did they include festivals that are not specifically puppet festivals but are magnets for the puppet community (like Letni Letna and the European Regions Festival described below). Suffice it to say there are a lot, and some weeks in the summer I see one Czech puppet festival after another popping up on my Facebook feed. They range from avant-garde events in tiny Baroque cellars to large festivals that take over their host city.
I love taking students to Czech puppet festivals where they get a slice of the magic. Below is an overview of a few upcoming festivals that we'll be atending. All of them promise top artistic quality. Keep an eye on our social media posts for photos and updates about them.
And next summer, maybe you should schedule a trip in June to see them for yourself.
The "big" puppet festivals: Materinka and Skupa
Next week, we are taking our June marionette students to the acclaimed Naive Theatre's Materinka Festival, one of the best-known Czech festivals in international puppet circles. The festival focuses on productions for pre-school and kindergarten children, showing the magical, creative new shows of Czech companies and also a few internatinal groups. The festival is held biennially festival, and in "off" years the Alfa Theatre's Skupa International Festival takes place in Plzen. It has a similar atmosphere but does not focus on young children and has more international programming (last year they brought Neville Tranter of Stuffed Puppet Company among others).
Both of these festivals take over the host cities. The Materinka mascot is a giant blimp in the shape of an elephant. It bobs on the main city square, framed by the Gothic towers and Baroque facades of the buildings behind it. There are workshops for kids, free shows in the park, exhibitions in local museums, and audiences packed with schoolkids. Plus a chance to see the award-winning shows of the Naive Theatre. What's not to love?
Materinka Festival, organized by the Naive Theatre (Liberec)
June 10-14
Visiting the 2023 Materinka Festival with our students! Looking forward to going back this year
The longest-running puppet festival
And it is not just the longest-running in the Czech Republic - or Europe - it is the longest-running the world! It all started in 1951 with a meeting of amateur puppeteers. They decided to meet regularly and showcase the best non-professional productions of the year at an annual festival. Perhaps even more importantly, they also organize intensive seminars taught by professional puppeteers (many of whom teach with us). Their goal is to develop new talent and inspire each other. In recent years, more and more professional Czech companies have performed "insiprational" shows for the amateur puppeteers. The festival and seminars are focused on the local Czech community, but this year there is also a seminar in English for international participants.
The festival is organized by an association that is part of the Ministry of Culture to support amateur arts. They also supported our book, Puppet Technology, to promote the craft of puppetry among amateurs.
The Puppeteer's Chrudim Festival, organized by the NIPOS association
June 27-July 3
Small and Magical
The Small Puppet Inventory (Malá loutková inventura) in Kuks is a festival showcasing the latest puppet theatre productions for children and adults, presented by smaller companies. The festival focuses on puppet theatre that draws from the Czech puppetry but is also taking the tradition in new directions. Many of the shows are developed by students or recent graduates from arts academies. The festival takes place in a tiny 17th-century town that was built as a stunning Baroque spa and became a European centre of culture and art. The town now houses a museum and cultural centre, and in 2020, they opened a Gallery of Puppets in an old barn. Since then, they have started organising festivals, residencies and events in atmospheric historical locations. They also run the Teatrum Kuks festival in August, featuring Baroque music, dance and theatre, as well as puppetry..
The Small Puppet Inventory (June) / Teatrum Kuks (August)
June 6-8 / August 20-24
Next weekend our friend, PIP instructor, and puppeteer extraordinaire Tomas Behal is launching a new festival in Pribram, a town an hour south of Prague. Like the Kuks festival, they will present smaller puppet companies, including the legendary Petr Nikl whose marionette you see pictured above. Tomas promises concerts, fire shows in the evening, and even the food vendors are magical! Lots of other friends are performing, and if you have been in our workshops you will probably recognize the line-up which includes Buchty a loutky (Buns and Puppets), Studio Damúza and Tomas' own Toy Machine Theatre group. Unfortunately we are going to miss it because it conflicts with two other festivals....
June 13-17
All about Circuses (and puppets)
Since 2012, we have performed at Prague's beloved Letni Letna New Circus and Theatre Festival, one of the most magical Czech events of the year. This 3-week international festival brings phenomenal shows, music, theatre and energy to the city. It is one of the largest festivals of its kind in Central Europe. Over 60,000 people attend each summer! The main focus is stunning thetare shows that incorporate contemporary circus. There is also an extensive theatre programme for children, with 5–7 shows a day, many of which are puppet shows. There are also workshops, open-air shows and free concerts, not to mention a fantastic atmosphere where you can enjoy great performances, eat great food, and meet just about everyone in Prague who loves the arts. We feel very, very lucky to get to be part of this festival.
August 13-31
Matej and Petr Forman (the sons of film director Milos Forman) are artists/puppeteers whose incredibly visual and even more incredibly imaginative projects redefine what I think of as puppetry. They organize an annual Arena Festival in Prague which, like Letni Letna, primarily showcases circus style shows. They also hold puppet shows for kids (many on their Boat of Mysteries, a barge that was turned into a puppet theatre). This year, Matej Forman created a mask/puppet show, Circus Los Animales Fantásticos, with our good friend and PIP teacher Dora Bouzkova and her colleagues from the company Puppets Beyond Borders, which is premiering there this weekend.
June 5-19
What is a European Festival without puppetry?
One of the Czech Republic's most important theatre festivals is the European Regions Festival (Festival REGIONY) in Hradec Kralove. The festival presents over 300 performances in more than thirty venues in the historic city center. It is co-produced by the local Drak Theatre, which is also one of the renowned world puppet theatres, and perhaps it should come as no surprise that there are over 25 shows with puppets, including many that will be at the festivals listed above.
I am taking our students from our June workshop for a day, and we'll see 4 puppet shows.
Sounds about right for a Czech theatre festival.
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