Skipton 2011 - A meeting place for the world of puppetry

About the festival....

The 4th Skipton Puppet Festival took place from 23 – 25 September. Click here to download the Festival Brochure. This year’s festival featured 23 companies from around the world performing 72 shows – as well as exhibitions, demonstrations, workshops, and even a parade! Do feel free to contribute your thoughts and reflections on the festivals, and links to any photos or videos from Skipton 2011. Please contact peter@puppeteersuk.com

Links to photos and videos from the Festival


Video of The Puppet Parade – 25 September 2011

Video of Mario by Cie RUE BARREE

Photos from The Puppet Parade – 25 September 2011

Collette Knowles, Artistic Director of Rough Magic, shares her thoughts on the festival in her blog. You can also read more about her Skipton experience - and see her perform at the festival by clicking here.


A number of personal reflections…

Clive Chandler, Chair PUK and director of Walking Tall:
What a pleasure it was to be in Skipton once again in September 2011. This was my fourth time. The PuppeteersUK meeting, which I chaired on the Friday afternoon, was valuable and well attended; but for me this festival was a meeting place in a much wider sense. It was a chance to get together with a lot of friends from UK puppetry and renew acquaintances with a number of international performers. It was also an opportunity to get to know ‘new’ performers from home and abroad. In my accommodation alone there were some dozen or so performers talking in a mixture of French, Finish, German, Hungarian and English. Performers ate together at meal times. Conversations were stimulating and thought provoking. They began at breakfast and continued in passing during the day. They concluded over evening drinks in local pubs. The audience circulated around the various venues and enjoyed the many outside entertainments and strange encounters that were on offer. Locals were joined by visitors from across the region - and much further afield. Performers mingled with the audience and watched each other’s shows. Many members of the public were meeting puppetry for the first time. Others were coming back, having been delighted by previous festivals. Many were family groups but it was also great to be part of a large crowd of adults enjoying the Saturday evening cabaret. There were two other shows for ‘adults’. On Sunday a wonderful parade provided a real connection between the whole town and the puppet festival. The 40-minute route was lined from start to finish with smiling faces. Once again this festival was a sell out success. There were nearly 3000 tickets sold (all managed by a volunteer with a laptop!). Thousand more enjoyed the free events. I hope it will be possible for the world of puppetry to meet again in Skipton in two year’s time. For that to happen, funders (including the local town and district council) will have to step up and meet the need to fully support the Skipton Puppet Festival in the way that it self-evidently deserves. They would be daft not to. What a huge return in terms of culture and commerce is to be had for Skipton from such a relatively tiny outlay. You could pay arts marketing and tourism gurus a small fortune and not come close to achieving what Liz and Daniel Lempen are achieving here.

Melvyn Rawlinson, Professor Popups Puppet Theatre:
There was such a fantastic sense of ‘community’; both in terms of the performers and also the visitors who came from far and wide. Everywhere you looked there seemed to be the biggest grins imaginable from all ages. The Festival Hub, with all it had to offer, seemed a long way from the troubles of the outside world and although it only lasted a few short days I’m sure it will have left everyone with some fantastic memories. I know that events like these don’t just happen but are the result of months of hard work from a small dedicated team, and in this case saying well done seems sorely inadequate.

Jane Savage and John Haynes, Diddley Dee Puppets:
Congratulations to everyone involved in the festival for a thoroughly enjoyable and highly successful event. The central hub provided the lively heart of the festival, with all the venues within easy reach. Timing of the shows made it possible for us to see a large number of varied and exceptional performances. Audiences felt relaxed due to the many efficient, friendly stewards. Ticket prices were well judged, and the continuous array of free entertainment was phenomenal. Many thanks

Linda Lewis, Director, Puppet Centre Trust:
This was my first visit to the Skipton Festival. It is a charming festival with a huge amount of local support. Audiences are mainly children and families who are really enjoying themselves. I liked the idea of some good quality free shows. It makes it accessible to all. The venues are all within easy reach of the lovely town and it was a pleasure to walk from place to place. I visited John Parkinson’s workshop, which was very popular, and then I saw children with all their cherished puppets about the streets. It was exceedingly hot in the Judi Dench Studio.

Mark Whitaker, Puppeteer:
My highlights of this year’s Skipton Puppet Festival are perhaps best summed up in a series of snapshots; A town crier in full fig acting as barker for my show. A clandestine meeting in a car park to supply marionette string to a pair of Hippo handlers. A huge crowd enthralled by Punch. A show in French, translated by a member of the audience. A busy festival organiser taking time out to perform to a packed house. A tent full of adults laughing their socks off at a nauseous Mexican frog. A beautiful telling of Red Riding Hood and a chance to hear the Wolf’s side of the story. A parade through the streets of the town viewed from the inside of a giant Punch puppet. These are just a few moments that stood out for me. I’m sure everyone who was there will have their own different highlights. Long live Skipton Puppet Festival - there really isn’t anything else quite like it!

Malcolm and Sarah Knight, Scottish Mask and Puppet Centre:
Once again the Skipton Festival delivered the goods with a fine crop of indoor shows, outdoor events and hubsite marquees by the canal. We particularly enjoyed the Giant Mr. Punch from Walking Tall, Professor Geoff Felix’s hilarious and masterly presentation of Punch & Judy and Philippe Saumont’s splendid antics with Policinelle (Pulcinella. The packed programme and convivial atmosphere makes the human scale of this Festival in a busy Yorkshire market town a bi-annual event to be savoured and looked forward to. The organisers of both Skipton (Daniel and Liz Lempen)and Beverley (Anna Ingleby) Puppet Festivals are providing a great popular service to the UK puppet community and to the general public.

Collette Knowles, Artistic Director, Rough Magic Theatre:
What a grand job, (once again!) Liz and Daniel Lempen did of organising and running the festival. Not only was it as good as two years ago, it was even better!