Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Chicago hosts a festival entirely dedicated to puppetry—and you won’t believe what it has in store
www.timeout.com: Since the dawn of time—or at least since someone first glued string to a wooden limb—puppetry has been one of the world’s most polarizing art forms. Some find puppets downright adorable; others are still unpacking childhood trauma involving carved smiles and unblinking eyes. Chicago, however, has clearly chosen a side. The city’s appetite for puppets is downright ravenous, which is why the 8th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival kicks off its 12-day takeover tomorrow, January 21.
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I really love puppets, I think they’re so cool, and have so many cool possibilities. I love that Chicago hosts an entire festival dedicated to puppets. They’ve done this for 8 years now, and I’m surprised I had no idea it existed. One thing that I think is particularly nice about this festival is that there are free exhibits, making it more accessible to everyone, and bringing in people who otherwise wouldn’t have engaged with this type of art. I also really like how they know they have a vast array of audience members, and have a variety of exhibits to engage with these audiences. For kids, they have some more family-friendly shows, including a massive alligator, but they also have some puppet shows that cater more towards adults. After reading this article, I hope to someday be able to attend this puppet festival because I think it would be such a cool opportunity to engage with puppetry arts made by people from all around the world.
This is super cool! I love the crocodile pictured in the article. When I (and probably most people) think of puppets, I usually think of small, hand-held dolls or marionettes. Many puppets, though (especially theatrical ones) are larger than life or unique. The range of audience for each puppet show is a cool selling point for this festival in particular. Anyone can go watch and enjoy puppet shows, because each show will feature wildly different puppets and themes. How big is this puppet festival compared to other puppet festivals? Why did it originate in Chicago (and furthermore, why Chicago in the winter?). It’s very interesting to me how much of the event is free! I think that that’s really important for the public to access, especially because, from a glance at the website, individual tickets to shows seem to be all over $50. I looked on the website and a show I’d love to see from there is A Doll’s House (featuring an enormous, realistic spider puppet.) That one puppet enhances the “trapped” feeling of the show so well.
An eighth year of the puppet festival and I have not seen it? This is a must-see. Looking just at the images featured in this article, it seems like there are so many different varieties of puppet. I am thinking specifically of the first image of the crocodile puppet with the puppeteer literally sitting inside of it. I love the obvious combination of puppet and puppeteer. I also think back to the puppets in The Lion King which are a more popular example of this. It feels like a physical manifestation of recognition of the artists that would otherwise be hidden behind their craft (puppets). You can also see examples of this inverse expression of puppetry later in the article with the humanistic puppet shown at the end. I wonder if, being a puppetry festival, the venue might shape the visibility of the puppeteers. Would fellow puppeteers want to see or not to see the artists behind the puppets?
I’d have to disagree with the article claiming that puppetry is one of the most polarizing art forms. I mean, come on, who doesn't love a good puppet, maybe like a ventriloquist doll is a little creepy, but I don't think that’s enough to make that sort of claim. That being said, this sounds like an incredibly cool festival to attend. I think puppetry is so fun because it's such a diverse art form, as this article points out it's got everything from crocodiles to the sex lives of puppets. Fun for the whole family! I wonder what sort of exhibitions they have going on at this festival. I also wonder if they have any workshops or panels from the incredible puppet makers that have made this festival possible. This festival also seems to have an impressive number of countries represented, and it would be very interesting to see how this art form has evolved differently across different cultures.
Puppet festival?! This sounds amazing. I've always had mixed feelings towards puppets since they are cute and creepy at the same time. This art form is always extremely creative in the sense that they create human-like figures, like a god creating a lively human being. The characteristics and spirits are given to each unique puppet. I remember watching a puppet show production. There was a puppet booth onstage with hundreds of puppets. Each of their forms is inspired by a famous or influential figure in this world. The actors would randomly choose puppets from different time periods or different cultural backgrounds and create stories based on their imaginary encounter. The whole production was so intriguing and mind-blowing that I nearly forgot that the actors were manipulating those puppets. When the article mentions the wide range of styles this festival covers, I wonder how much of a cultural conversation it holds when different puppets live in this same space together.
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