{"id":14184,"date":"2017-05-16T11:42:41","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T10:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/?p=14184"},"modified":"2017-05-16T11:42:41","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T10:42:41","slug":"puppet-fun-at-the-puppet-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2017\/05\/puppet-fun-at-the-puppet-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Puppet Fun At The Puppet Festival!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ards and North Down Borough Council is delighted to announce that The Puppet Festival is back with a jam-packed programme of puppet performances, workshops and general puppetry shenanigans.<\/h1>\n

Taking place at venues across the borough from Saturday 27 \u2013 Monday 29 May, Northern Ireland\u2019s only festival dedicated to puppets, has a range of quirky characters, madcap puppet madness and thrills and spills galore.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"The Festival kicks off on Saturday morning, 27 May when North Down Museum throws its doors open for The Puppet Open Day. Come and meet the puppet-licious Polly Pocket and her pop-tastic puppets. Get up close and personal with Strangeface Puppet Theatre and catch the elves helping the shoemaker with the retelling of this magical story by Banyan Puppet Theatre. \u00a0The Rev Haslett, Ards\u2019 veteran puppeteer, will also be there with his incredible ventriloquist dummies. William Haslett has been performing with his puppets since the 1950\u2019s and has some incredible stories to tell about his puppet friends.<\/p>\n

With a variety of free scheduled performances, free puppet workshops and plenty of quirky characters to meet, there\u2019s something for everyone! The open day runs from 11.30am \u2013 3.30pm.<\/p>\n

One of the highlights of the festival is the Northern Ireland premiere of \u2018Beached\u2019 by Strangeface Theatre Company. \u2018Beached\u2019 is a tiny tale all about Arnold whose walk becomes an adventure. The miniature set is a box with the Strangeface trademark puppets. A soundtrack is played on headphones for each audience member, creating a world to share round the table. Catch the show at The Puppet Open Day and let your imagination run riot, a magical and spellbinding show \u2013 not to be missed!<\/p>\n

On Sunday 28 May, the Puppet Festival will be visiting Exploris Aquarium in Portaferry with The Three Little Pigs show by Little Gem Puppets. This sweet rendition of the much loved children\u2019s fairytale, is performed in a Punch and Judy style booth. Whatever you do don\u2019t tell the wolf where the pigs are hiding! This is a free show although Exploris admission charges still apply. Shows are at 12pm and 2pm.<\/p>\n

Also on Sunday 28, Strangeface Theatre Company will be performing their \u2018Spaced\u2019 show at Castle Espie Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre. This puppet version of a silent disco, will entertain children and adults alike. Come and experience the story of one bored boy, one mad scientist and an accidental trip into outer space. This free show runs at various times between 11am and 4pm. Castle Espie admission charges apply.<\/p>\n

The puppet tour continues on Bank Holiday Monday, 29 May when \u201cMaggie\u201d by Little Gem Puppets will visit Donaghadee Paddling Pool. Loosely based on Hansel and Gretel, this free show is packed full of excitement and adventure. If you like to talk to puppets, this Punch and Judy style show is the one for you! Show times are 12pm and 2pm.<\/p>\n

For a full programme or to book tickets please visit www.ardsarts.com or call 028 9181 0803.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ards and North Down Borough Council is delighted to announce that The Puppet Festival is back with a jam-packed programme of puppet performances, workshops and general puppetry shenanigans. Taking place at venues across the borough from Saturday 27 \u2013 Monday 29 May, Northern Ireland\u2019s only festival dedicated to puppets, has a range of quirky characters, … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14186,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14184\/revisions\/14186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}