All Creatures Great and Small

Puppets Up! is all about family fun and since we get a lot of questions from parents and grandparents about festival activities and about what is appropriate for children of different ages, we’ve prepared this Festival Guide.

A Festival for Families

Puppets Up! provides great entertainment for families with children of all ages.  Many of our puppet shows and street entertainers are designed for the very young, while others will keep the 8 and 9 year-olds fully engaged.

Nearly all of our activities happen within the downtown core of Almonte, along our main street, Mill Street. All the venues are located within an easy stroll and there are plenty of shady places to sit and for kids to run in the grass.  Many of our downtown restaurants offer full meals, snacks and take-away, and several refreshment and food vendors are located on the street.

We offer a small market bazaar too, where you can purchase puppet paraphernalia.

Washrooms are well signed and easy to find.

The Puppet Shows

This year, our 11 puppet troupes will offer 66 separate puppet shows in tented theatres and in some of the historic buildings in downtown Almonte.  The Performance Schedule on this web site indicates show times and locations, and our printed program will be available on-site and inserted in the August edition of theHumm, our local arts newsmagazine. The schedule is slightly different each day, but the parade begins at the same time each day (See Puppets on Parade below).

Our shows are produced mainly in English with one production being offered in French by the Tenon Mortaise troupe each day. Please check the schedule for more details.

Most shows are approximately 45 minutes long.

Seating options include low benches at the front and chairs with room at the back of the venues for strollers.

All Creatures Great and Small!

That’s our theme this year. Birds, and bugs, and all the huggable (and not so huggable) creatures of the natural world will inspire the puppeteers and their audiences at this year’s Puppets Up! International Puppet Festival.  Almonte’s world-famous festival will be “alive” with the natural talents of the acclaimed puppeteers, and their puppets, who will creep, crawl, sprout, fly and wiggle their way to the festival and into your hearts.

Puppets on Parade (1:45 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. daily)

Once a day all of the puppet energy in Almonte comes together for one great big parade.  Puppets of every shape and size, along with musicians and street entertainers, take a joyous stroll down Mill Street.

The parade starts each day at 1:45 p.m. at the top of Mill Street and ends at 2:15 p.m. at Kirkland Park behind the new Post Office. It’s not to be missed.

The Puppets Up! Craft Tent

Get bedazzled at the Puppets Up! Craft tent!  Kids 2 and up will learn how to make puppets or just have fun of playing with sparkles. There are creative challenges in store for older kids too.

The craft tent is free and is located in Kirkland Park (behind the new Post Office building.  Kids need to be accompanied by an adult.

Tons of Street Entertainment

For your added enjoyment, and free of charge, Puppets Up! welcomes a fun list of guest entertainers who will perform up and down Mill Street.

The list includes:

• Juggler, stilt walker, puppeteer and comic, Tim Holland, from Cambridge, Ontario
• Montreal puppeteer, Salim Hammad
• The RILTS Puppet Troupe, comprised of young actors from Rideau Lakes district
• Tom Joron’s group from the Ottawa Valley Youth Talent Association
• Almonte face painter, Maureen Dagg
• Ottawa face painter, Aamina Badran
• Ottawa balloon twister, Brad Wood

Loads of musicians including:

• Singer/musician/guitarist, Jake Differ, from Peterborough
• Mississippi Mills Musicworks will present a variety of local talent (including Terry Tufts, George Turcotte and teachers and students of the music school).
• Talented young Almonte fiddler, Danny Albert
• Local celtic band, The Barley Shakers
• Singer and guitarist, Phil Stevenson, from Peterborough
• Almonte’s version of “Stomp”, our own Impact Percussion and their garbage pails
• Old Time fiddle group, The Fiddleheads, featuring Ron Caron

Puppets Up! Street shows will feature:

• The Balcony Puppeteers – think Statler and Waldorf from the Muppet Show, but worse!
• Saints and Sinners, a puppet troupe from Toronto perform “Noah’s Ark” and “Adam and Eve” out of the back of a wheeled cart!
• Aside from performing their show in a main venue, Aboriginal Experiences will perform a Pow Wow dance in front of the AOTH before the Saturday night cabaret.
• Clowns including Almonte’s own Silly U

Au Naturel – For Adults only (August 6, 8 p.m Saturday night, Almonte Old Town Hall)

On the Saturday evening of the festival, the stage at the Almonte Old Town Hall is reserved for a puppet cabaret for adults only. The cabaret will include over a dozen adult puppet sketches with hilarious puppet continuity by puppeteer and producer, Matt Ficner, and some of his saucy friends. Well-known comedian, Dan Redican, will headline and he is bringing is very bad puppets!

The performance begins at 8 p.m. on August 6 in the Almonte Old Town Hall. Tickets are at Baker Bob’s or at Mill Street Books, along with tickets for the full festival.

Read more about the Cabaret

Parking

The main parking area is at the Almonte Fairgrounds on Water Street, a three-minute walk from the Almonte Old Town Hall, the main entrance to the festival. Gus the Shuttle Bus will be running back and forth between the parking lot at the fairgrounds and the festival entrance. Ask staff at the festival gates to direct you to designated handicapped parking spaces in Almonte.

Accessibility

All of the Puppets Up! public venues are wheelchair accessible and several wheelchair accessible washrooms have been placed around the festival site.  Gus the Shuttle bus can also transport someone in a wheelchair.

Ask staff at the festival gates to direct you to designated handicapped parking spaces in Almonte.

Strollers

Since Puppets Up! is super kid-friendly strollers are welcomed throughout the festival site.  Families will be asked to leave their strollers at the back of the theatre venues, however, where they will be carefully watched by festival volunteers.  Benches are positioned at the front of each theatre to improve the view for small children too!

Tickets

Children’s single day passes (in the from of a wrist band), Adult single day passes and weekend passes to the Puppets Up! festival are available on-line, through Mill Street Books, and at the festival gates.

Cash, debit and credit payments can be made on-site.

ADVANCE TICKET SALES:
Location:
Mill Street Books
52 Mill Street
Almonte, ON
K0A 1A0
613-256-9090

ONLINE PAYPAL TICKET SALES:

Advance tickets are available on-line via PayPal.

DAY PASS

Saturday or Sunday (Make sure you remember which day you selected if pre-ordering tickets)
Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Adult – $15 (CDN)
Children (ages 3 – 12) – $10 (CDN)
Kids under 3 get in FREE

WEEKEND PASS

Adult – $25 (Cdn)
Children – $15 (Cdn)
Kids under 3 get in FREE

Cash, debit and credit payments can be made on-site.