Festival Location: Charleville-Mézières, France

Festival Type(s): Puppet Festivals, Childrens Festivals, Arts Festivals

Every three years since 1961 the town of Charleville-Mézières in the Ardennes Region of France has played host to the Festival Mondial des Theatres de Marionnettes. For ten days the town is over-run by all manner of puppets - from glove to string puppets, shadow and Bunraku, from real objects to on-screen, ranging in size from small and intimate to giant puppets. So enamored with puppets is the town that since 1981 it has become home to the Institut International de la Marionnette, a permanent place of training, creation and exploring of new ideas in the art of puppetry.