About

This year the International Puppet Festival, produced by the Train Theater, is celebrating its 26th anniversary.

Held annually in August, the International Puppet Festival offers performances for children and adults representing a wide array of contemporary and traditional puppet theater, as well as visual theater and image theater.

Since its founding, the Festival has hosted many renowned artists from Israel and abroad and is recognized internationally as one of the world’s leading puppet festivals.

The aim of the Festival is to promote a contemporary puppet theater vernacular, with an emphasis on personal, innovative language and a high standard of development of its dramatical elements. The Train Theater produces original productions for children, and the Festival provides an opportunity to host audiences across a wide spectrum of ages, from young children to adults.

With the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Festival’s International Exposure events forge a bridge between local performing artists and festival directors from abroad, creating an opportunity for Israeli artists to perform around the world.

The Festival events take place in auditoriums and spaces within easy walking distance of one other, including the Train Theater, the Liberty Bell Garden, the Khan Theater, the YMCA, Beit Shmuel, the Gerard Behar Center and the First Station.

To achieve our goal of providing festival content that is both interesting and inclusive to audiences from Jerusalem and around the country, we have joined forces with the Jerusalem International YMCA, an institution that provides cultural and sports facilities in an atmosphere of equality, cooperation and respect for the individual of every belief, community and faith.

In keeping with their philosophy of bringing people together and facilitating social interaction between people through joint cultural activities, the YMCA will host the bilingual performances in Hebrew and Arabic of the El-Khayat Theater’s “African Tale" and the Jerusalem Train Theater’s “Asfur - The Freedom Bird” .

The YMCA will also host the Festival’s opening performance of “System Ali” whose artists are of Arab, Jewish and Russian origin. The YMCA Auditorium is one of the city’s most beautiful performance spaces and will also host other festival artists.

An extraordinary festival event! 

Artictic Committee

Osi Wald

Dalia Yaffe Maayan

Miki Mevorach

Miri Peeri

​Rachel Nir (observer)

Shahar Marom