18–20 SEP 2026 · Te Whanganui-a-TARA WELLINGTON

A Weekend of Puppetry & Wonder

Celebrating 'Puppets for Peace'

WPF returns this spring to fill the Vogelmorn Precinct with Puppetry and Wonder! A family-first celebration brought to life by our own community of puppeteers, storytellers and makers.

See the Programme Get Tickets

four smiling children wearing orange tshirts which have a picture of Nemo and the words "Finding Nemo" are holding large rod puppets from the animated film "Finding Nemo". There is Gurgle looking at the other puppets from the side, Martin looking worried, Dory looking a bit confused but happy with mouth open as if mid song and Nemo looking off to the side. Like in the film the characters are bright, with exagerated facial features and large eyes

Community day

Saturday - Junk Puppet Carnival FREE for all the whānau!

Drop in for our morning outdoor Junk Puppet Carnival on the Vogelmorn Green, with hands-on Junk puppet-making, Recycled paper crafts, the Odditorium, Roaming puppets, Little Landscapes show, Teatro Lambe Lambe, Cafe, Street musicians, Chill zone for mums with bubs and even an Ice cream van! There will also be ticketed shows for whanau, and puppetry workshops for adults.

a wooden marionette wearing a purple velvet hoodie, white tee-shirt silver star necklace, blue jeans and white shoes and sits in a chair. He has a stylised cylindrical face with a long nose and two red beady wooden eyes protruding just below the hoodie. The puppet's head is slightly tilted one hand is gesturing towards the audience. The strings and puppeteers legs are visible.

Evening Cabaret

An evening of 'Pea Soup and Puppets for Peace'

After 5.30pm, the festival gets a little wilder! Join us for an evening of bold, funny and surprising Stand-up Puppetry, a specially commissioned show 'The Fish', Teatro Lambe Lambe and a bowl of our famous gourmet Pea Soup, one of the highlights of the Wellington Puppetry Festival 2024!

Moments from past festivals

A marionette dressed as a portrait artist, with curly slighly matted brown hair and paint covered hands. She is wearing an orange and red paint spattered apron and a matching beret, sitting next to an easel displaying her work. On the orange easle which is covered with paint is a small canvas with her childlike signed painting of a smiling face with long blod heair and a person with short red hair."

A carved wooded marionette is dressed in black velvet suit and has stylized and exagerated features. His forhead is large and deeply grooved. Dark paint emphsizes the crevices. The eyes slant downwards and protrude and the pupils are painted so he is looking slighly crosseyed towards the floor. His nose is a thin, angular and oblong. His mouth is a black gash and his stylised hands finish in sharp points and the nails are pained black. The skin tone of the puppet is grey

In a dark room there are 3 puppeteers. A beam of light illuminates the middle puppeteer who is looking intently at the flat rod puppet of a fantastical creature in front of him. It looks like a wood sprite emerging from the tree. To his left a puppeteer with a worried expression looks towards the 2 dimensional rod puppet of a girl she is operating. On the other side, kneeling a puppeteer looks toward the girl puppet which her puppet, another fantastical creature that has a moon face and antlers and tree branch arms is looking towards. The puppets are bathed in blue light and are performing on black boxes wreathed in fairy lights.

A wooden kiwi marionette with one foot raised is approaching two children who are sitting on the floor and smiling. The puppet's feet are beautifully carved you can see each tonail on the foot and it has a long curved beak, grooves where wings will fold up from are visible. The kiwi is painted in browns and white with a light yellow beak and feet.

puppeteer with brown curly hair and dressed in black is performing a puppet show taking place in a mini table top theatre ,made out of plain brown cardboard. The puppeteers mouth is obscured by her raised arm and her eyes are focused on the puppet she is operating. The puppet centre stage is a rock. The bird puppet lying down off stage is visible.

Standing in front of a bright blue sky streaked with white clouds is large parade style puppet of a Māori woman wearing a red top and a korowai over one shoulder. She appears enourmous dwarfing the house in the background. She carrys a tino rangatira flag. The puppet is made from willow with coloured tissue paper over the frame. The shape of willow can be seen underneath the tissue papper. Her hair is made from black tissue paper hanging in long ropes down below her shoulders.

A puppeteer wearing a backpack style turtle puppet operated with bamboo rods. Puppet is made from papier mache painted grey and has rubbish stuck to it's underside.

a display of antique marionettes on a shelf including a clown on a unicycle a man in a top hat and waistcoat and a two clowns in red and blue costumes

All photos on this page are courtesy of Tom Kay.

Special thanks to our proud sponsors and supporters