LAHORE: The two-day 22nd International Puppet Festival by the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop kicked off at the Rafi Peer Cultural Complex on Raiwind Road on Friday.

The festival opened with a colourful ceremony in which hundreds of schoolchildren as well as puppet festival lovers and other guests participated. The mascot parade was the most significant part of the ceremony where a bunch of balloons was left in the air, making the children joyous.

There were a number of performances on the inaugural day of the festival. There was storytelling and puppet performances by professionals from Indonesia, Germany and Turkey.

In the main lawn at the Rafi Peer Cultural Complex there were performances by the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop, the Pakistan National Council of Arts, the Lahore Arts Council and Bahawalpur’s puppeteer Asghar.

There was a puppet performance by Imran Pirzada and Lehri the Clown and two performances by Indonesia and Turkey in the amphitheatre. Besides, there was a folk puppet theatre performance by Aziz and Bashir.

The festival like previous years has international and local puppet productions and activities for children. Scores of people also visited The Museum of Puppetry at the Rafi Per Cultural Complex and enjoyed seeing a classic collection of national and international puppets.

The festival is a celebration of modern and traditional puppetry, local arts & crafts and culture from around the country. Its opening day offered colourful activities which included puppet performances and workshops for children, storytelling, puppet parade and exhibits at the museum.

The Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop has been actively involved with puppetry since 1978. It has over the years hosted Pakistan’s largest internationally renowned puppet festivals along with puppet workshops for children and adults across Pakistan in schools and in festivals. It has been promoting joyful learning by using puppetry as a tool for education and social awareness.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2019