Newcastle Puppetry Festival 2026 update
- Moving Parts Arts
- Feb 10
- 1 min read
The Bad News (good news below!): Against all of our best efforts as a tiny team, we have been unable to secure Arts Council England funding to be able to make the 2026 Newcastle Puppetry Festival go ahead. We wish to say a huge thank you to the 250+ artists who took the time to apply, especially the shortlisted artists who have held the dates for close to a year. Also a big thank you to our venue and community partners, and other funders, for backing the 2026 festival proposal. The journey does not end here though - we will try again next year.
The Good News: Thanks to funding from other supporters, we will still be able to deliver an Easter Holiday programme of activities between 4th-12th April. This will include:
The first ever Moving Parts Puppet Film Fest at Tyneside Cinema
A week of puppet making workshops for adults (soon to be announced)
12 x free 'A Treasury of Tyneside Tales' performances with a giant crankie on Great North Museum's lawn
A 9-day community art installation called Wind Garden, also on the Great North Museum's lawn
A community exhibition of 100 crankies made in workshops throughout the year inside Great North Museum
A community exhibition of Teeny Tiny Toon workshops, which 500+ local residents have taken part in over the past year.
More details coming very soon!
I enjoyed reading the update about the Newcastle Puppetry Festival and how it brings creative performances to life in so many different ways, which reminded me of times I had to make my own work clearer for others to understand. Once I used a Law project editing service when my paper felt messy and that helped me feel calm before submitting. It made me see that careful revision can make creative work stronger.