Puppet festival cancelled due to lack of funding

An annual puppet festival has announced its 2026 event will not go ahead after missing out on funding.

The seventh edition of the Newcastle Puppetry Festival was due to take place in April, but organisers Moving Parts Arts said it has been unable to secure an Arts Council England grant.

Artistic director Kerrin Tatman said they were disappointed but "appreciate that it was a difficult decision", citing how many artists rely on funding.

A spokesperson for the arts council said they have been proud to support the festival in previous years, but there was strong competition for funds and success was not guaranteed year-on-year.

Tatman said the shows and street theatre that make up a large part of the festival would not be possible without the funding.

The festival's biggest event is a puppet parade through the centre of Newcastle.

Funding from other supporters will mean Moving Parts Arts will still be able to deliver its Easter Holiday programme of activities, which will include the first puppet film festival at Tyneside Cinema and a week of puppet-making workshops.

"I think this is a reflection of the general funding landscape for arts organisations, right from individual artists up to much larger organisations than ours," they said.

"And whilst we're biased and would like arts council to fund us, they are making very difficult decisions with the resources they have at the moment.

"So we do appreciate that it was a difficult decision."

The Arts Council England spokesperson said: "There is strong competition for our funds and our budgets are limited.

"Unfortunately, this means that we have to make difficult decisions and we receive more good applications than we are able to support."

The arts organisation said it had been working on this year's funding application for about a year and had received applications from more than 250 artists across the world to take part.

But Tatman said cancelling this year's festival would not deter them from trying for funding again next year.

"We've seen puppetry organisations and festivals up and down the country closing in the last five years, so from that perspective we're very driven to keep pushing ahead," they said.

"Even though it's a rocky road and we just hope that next year we'll have a better result."

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