ROSSENDALE REVEALED
THE Promoting Rossendale Partnership Board has been set up to realize Rossendale’s potential as a tourist destination. Barry Hyde, member of the Promoting Rossendale Partnership Board, will be highlighting those ‘hidden gems’ that make Rossendale and its community distinctive. This week he will be looking at The Boo Puppet Festival.
THE Boo Puppet Festival, based at the Boo Theatre in Waterfoot, is one of Rossendale’s premier events, and this year’s festival runs from Thursday, July 14 to Sunday, July 17, with over 50 activities being planned over the weekend, and, as every year, will feature shows for adults and older children, shows for families with younger children, even beautiful shows for babies, toddlers and their grown-ups.
They also have a lovely mix of FREE and reasonably priced ticketed shows.
This year, they have several dedicated areas for the Puppet Festival.
These include puppet making, engineering and performance, which is an intensive hands-on workshop taking place across three sessions.
There is a ‘Duvet Day’, a sensory theatre experience for babies, where you stay in bed all day. So put on your snuggliest pyjamas, grab your favourite toy, and crawl inside the blanket fort to play.
This is a new theatre experience for babies 0-18 months. Thomas Byrne is an actor and musician based in Manchester and during the Puppet Festival he’ll be entertaining crowds in the garden with renditions of his favourite songs.
Five brand new miniature puppet shows have been built by various artists during a puppet training residency at Horse + Bamboo for the three weeks leading up to the festival.
They will be shown for the first time over the weekend. The festival also features the now famous Puppet Parade, which promises to be a glorious riot of beautiful colour and featuring Dhol drumming music. For the full programme of activities over the festival period, call into The Boo Theatre or check out their website at horseandbamboo.org