This is an absolutely unique status, which no other city in the world can compete with Charleville-Mézières: World Capital of Puppetry.

Don't think it's a small, sparsely populated world. He lives on all continents. Its history is ancestral, its immense knowledge, its kaleidoscopic forms and its limitless imagination. Every 2 years during the first weeks of September, the World Festival of Puppet Theaters is living proof.  

More than 170.000 festival-goers roam the streets and the many rooms reserved for the In and Off festivals, to discover this brilliant and captivating people. Glove puppets, rod puppets, hand puppets, ice cream puppets, ash puppets, paper puppets, gigantic or tiny, traditional, hyperrealistic or object theatre...

Arrived discreetly in 1961, thanks to their friend and defender Jacques Félix, president of the Little Rag Actors troupe, the puppets and their theaters have gradually made Charleville-Mézières their meeting place, their magic cauldron.  

Renowned troupes perform in Charleville-Mézières

Philippe Genty (France), Ilka Schönbein (Germany), Agnès Limbos (Belgium), Duda Paiva (Netherlands), Green Ginger (England), Bread & Puppet Theater (USA), Les Anges au Plafond (France)… The greatest troupes, the most famous names have performed there, some even owe their birth to it. A theater of innovations fully 21e century, because at the crossroads of all the arts. An incomparable enchantment. Must-haves, we tell you. 

David Truillard

A World Puppet Festival every two years

Events from 19 28 September 2025 in Die  in Charleville-Mézières for the next edition of the festival!

information: World Festival of Puppet Theaters

Also know:

The Festival also organizes "M time" inter-festival years. Next edition: September 18 to 22, 2024

See also

  • The Great Puppeteer tells you hour by hour The legend of the Four Aymon Sons. (The whole story on Saturdays at 21 p.m.) 
  • The puppet collection Ardennes Museum 
  • The National School of Puppetry Arts 
  • The International Institute of Puppetry 

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