This last weekend was the annual puppet festival held at the Chiang Mai University Arts campus. This event featured puppet troupes from eight SE Asian countries. Starting Friday evening and going through Sunday evening. There were talks about the history of puppetry in each country, puppet making demonstrations, and of course puppet performances. Because of other activities I missed Friday and Saturday events, but was pleased to attend on Sunday afternoon and evening.
This was truly a festival with demonstrations and talks given in an air conditioned auditorium and shows and vendors outdoors in the evening.
My visit included puppet shows from Burma, Thailand, and Viet Nam on an outdoor stage under the stars with misting fans cooling the crowd.
What I did not get to see were the famous shadow puppet shows from Indonesia, which I intend to make a point of seeing next year.
I wouldn't have found the festival if it were not for a huge billboard near the entrance to Chiang Mai University which was in Thai language except for the words "ASEAN Puppetry Festival". I went home and Googled it to find the information and glad I did.
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