The Puppet Animation Festival 2005 was the 21st annual celebration of puppetry and animation in Scotland. From its origins as a week of performances at the Netherbow in Edinburgh in 1984, this year the Festival lasted for five weeks presenting 256 events provided by 24 companies in 131 venues throughout Scotland. The Festival is the largest and the oldest performing arts event for children and young people in the UK. Performance spaces range from city centre theatres, to urban community and arts centres, to the smallest of village halls The Festival has a network of partnerships with 24 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities, each of whom programmes what is most appropriate for their audiences

Over the past seven years the Festival has increased:

• The number of local authority partners from 11 in 1999 to 24 in 2005, a growth of 118%
• The number of events from 165 in 1999 to 256 in 2005, a growth of 55%
• The number of venues from 76 in 1999 to 131 in 2005, a growth of 59%
• Attendances from 10,627 in 1999 to 16,630 in 2005, a growth of 56%

In 2005 the Festival welcomed Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils to the event for the first time. Working in partnership with North East Arts Touring, as well as Moray Council, the Festival now has a considerable presence across the North East of Scotland. Allied to the removal of its administrative base to Aberdeen, the Festival now has a solid base from which to develop its profile and activities in the Grampian area. This will also benefit the growing number of events in Angus, Perth and Kinross and Highland. It will become easier to programme a series of consecutive performances for companies in a logical touring sequence with this ever greater number of Festival Partners within relatively easy reach of one another

In 2006 the Festival plans to spread its activities to the Western Isles. This would have occurred in 2005 had not the two arts development officers with whom arrangements were beginning to be made not moved to new positions. Next year the Festival also hopes to work with Inverlyde Council for the first time, as well as welcoming back East and South Ayrshire Councils to the event after their respective strategic and personnel re-organisations over the past 18 months

In its 21st year the Festival was also delighted to welcome two leading German companies – Figurentheater Chemnitz and Theater Der Schatten, and their productions Adam, Alfons & Amalie, and Peter And The Wolf – to Scotland for the first time. Both productions were enjoyed greatly by large audiences across the country. These elegant and focused productions also gave those Scottish puppeteers able to see them much inspiration and food for thought. These shows presented different imaginative and assured solutions to the perennial challenge for Scotland’s one person professional companies, namely how to balance the narrative demands of a particular story – in terms of its changing locations and characters – with the inevitable technical limitations imposed by being a solo performer….there is only so much one person can do!

In 2005 for the first time the Festival was able to offer animation workshops – provided by Red Kite Animation – at a cost that hard pressed local authorities can afford. Almost immediately the company was booked up for all four of the weeks during the Festival for which it was available. In 2006 the Festival plans to augment these workshops with animation performances in venues, using portable projection equipment obtained with funds from the appropriate Scottish Arts Council fund. Angus Arts hosted just such an event this year – complete with half time popcorn – that proved very popular, and fun!

This year for the first time the Festival was also able to offer a daily diary of events on its website. Along with all the other information provided in the brochure the Festival site – www.puppetanimation.org – is beginning to prove a useful new promotional tool. People from afar afield as China and New Zealand have used it to join the Festival mailing list. Through the website many more international companies have also been in touch offering their work for possible future inclusion

The Festival would like to mark the retirement of Ian Turbitt’s Puppet Theatre and Jack O’ Lantern this year. Both companies – particularly Ian’s – have been an important of the Festival programmes for many years and their contributions will be greatly missed. The Festival would also like to thank sincerely Sylvia Troon and Maggie Kinloch on their retirement from the Board for their unfailing support, encouragement and insight. We hope to see all of you at Festival events in the future for many years to come

In conclusion the 21st Puppet Animation Festival has been a great success – increased numbers of performances, workshops, venues and - most importantly – enthusiastic audiences! The Festival is now in the midst of an organisational review, with the invaluable help of Tony Reekie, Director of Imaginate, and Nikki Axford, General Manager, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, that will inform its future growth and development. The SAC’s recently completed Review of Puppetry will also play an important part in this process as the whole puppetry sector in Scotland can confidently look forward to the next 21 year of succes