Beverley Puppet Festival Goes Digital

The biennial Beverley Puppet  Festival, which would normally take place over one weekend in July,  is being extended to a two-month digital spectacle, starting in mid-May.

Nearly every festival in the calendar has had to cancel or is soon going to face that tough decision as Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc across the nation. But not the Beverley Puppet Festival. Faced with the prospect of yet more artists losing their livelihood, the Festival’s two directors, Anna Ingleby and Kerrin Tatman, have radically revised their plans and are taking a new look and highly-innovative festival online from 18th May.

Now, instead of giant birds and dinosaurs stalking the historic streets of the town while smaller shows for adults and children alike play out in various local venues, 25 puppet companies will be creating videos of puppet-making and puppetry activities that will be made accessible directly to people’s homes between the months of May and July.

Founder and artistic co-director, Anna Ingleby, says: “The Festival has always delivered an outstanding live experience to audiences from across the UK and beyond. We knew we couldn’t just throw up our hands and let that go. So we set our minds to creating an alternative plan – to turn what has been a catastrophic event for the performing arts and all the people who work in the industry into a real and tangible positive. There is already a lot of content being delivered online elsewhere, but we believe our model will be truly ground-breaking and serve as a blueprint and an inspiration for many other arts events going forward.”

Now a diverse line-up of puppeteers is already busy creating video activities for their new online audiences, all of which can be completed using simple materials that can easily be sourced from everyday items. These workshops will be released via the Festival website and social media channels with three going online every week for eight weeks. It starts with the first release on Monday 18th May through to the last workshop on Sunday 12th July, all supported by a new Festival app.

All the activities will be free to access, but the Festival have set up a link on their website to allow audience members and other supporters to make donations. Puppet fans can find more information and access the online workshops via the festival website: www.beverleypuppetfestival.com the dedicated Festival app and via social media @bevpuppetfest.