Balcony Puppeteers
I am telling you, the puppet performances in our famous Puppets Up! tent theatres are going to be fantastic this year! But Puppets Up! has so much more planned to keep kids of all ages entertained. Once again this year, we have a spectacular list of street entertainers, magicians and musicians who will perform in and around the festival site.
Magician Elliott Smith is the festival’s headliner. Elliott is the real deal – he’s received the Order of Merlin Shield, a prestigious award given by the International Society of Magicians. He’ll be joined by a bevy of face painters and balloon twisters, stilt walkers, chalk artists, puppeteers, musicians and clowns. As usual, the festival’s Balcony Puppeteers – think Statler and Waldorf from the Muppet Show, but worse – will be shouting out their snappy comments about national politics or what’s going on in the street.
Jake Differ
Award winning songwriter and Juno nominee, Jake Differ, will bring his kid-friendly brand of musical magic to the festival too. And it will be hard to miss festival favourite, Matt Ficner, and his grotesque and fantastic animatronic robots and puppets. Sometimes they just run circles ‘round on their miniature scooters.
Once a day all of the puppet energy in town comes together for one great, big, dazzling parade. Starting at 1:45 p.m. both days, puppets of every shape and size, along with musicians and street entertainers, take a joyous stroll down the full length of Mill Street. It really is magic.