World Puppetry Festival

Where: Perth
When: 4pm Sunday 13 April

The Union Internationale de la Marionette will be holding the world by a string when it arrives in Perth for the UNIMA Congress and World Puppetry Festival. Throughout April, the event draws puppeteers, artists and performers from all over the world, celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2008.

Exhibitions invite audiences to discover the wondrous results of science and art with the kaleidoscopic Mechanics Alive! Or look back over everyone's favourite man on the moon in Mr Squiggle & Friends. Theatres are taken over by shows including the mesmerising Dreamer in the Deep, which follows a curious half boy, half animal, who seeks adventure on the high seas; and Woyzeck on the Highveld, where life-sized wood carved puppets bring to life the story of German writer Georg Buchner's grim depiction of life in the early industrial age.

Sunday 6th April rings in Carnival Day. Here every puppet under the sun is invited to partake, from complicated contraptions requiring the skill of several dexterous people, to the good ol' sock on a hand. It will culminate in the Million Puppet Project, which aims to break the Guinness World Record for the World's Largest Puppet Display. You would be a muppet to miss it.

Where: Perth Concert Hall, 5 St Georges Terrace, Perth