THERE will be something for everyone at this year’s sixth International Skipton Puppet Festival – from fun with clay and shadows for the very young, through to political satire and challenging cardboard for the grown-ups.

Starting next Friday, October 2, the three-day festival features 30 companies from eight different European countries, including Belgium, Bulgaria and Iceland.

There is also home grown talent - including Skipton's Lempen Puppet Theatre - as well as some new faces performing as part of the London School of Puppetry.

Venues will range from auditoriums for 150 to miniature theatre spaces seating just 12 people.

There will also be a vast array of performances from traditional marionette circus acts and Punch and Judy to avant garde acts such as Dans L'atelier, from the brilliant Tof Theatre of Belgium, where puppets make themselves from blocks of polystyrene and then begin to manipulate their puppeteers!

"With basic materials and bucketloads of imagination, our artists will bring forth a mesmerising menagerie of creatures and characters," said a festival spokesman. "Come and enjoy a fun-filled and surprising weekend celebrating the art of puppetry."

There will be 23 ticketed indoor shows and a host of free street theatre and walkabout performances at the festival hub on Coach Street car park.

Even, before the festival gets under way, the public can get involved, with a series of Legs, Wings and Tails workshops this weekend.

They will be staged at Stepping Stones Nursery in Aireville Park and at the Greatwood and Horse Close Community Centre and will allow budding puppet-makers a chance to get hands-on with sticks, string, paper and glue as they bring creatures to life in time for the much-anticipated puppet parade.

In addition, there are also workshops at Skipton Library, where families can help to build a Very Hungry Caterpillar and his lunch!

The festival will culminate in a spectacular puppet parade next Sunday, October 4, which will bring a carnival atmosphere to Skipton as amateur and professional puppets dance their way along the High Street to the festival hub, accompanied by an array of Samba bands.

Also during the weekend, there will be hands-on workshop sessions to play with shadows, build puppets and produce a community animation.

As ever, tickets are selling fast, but this year, the festival team has catered for all budgets, with free admission to more than 60 per cent of the performances thanks to the support of Arts Council England, Craven District Council, Skipton Town Council and Skipton Town Partnership as well as many private sponsors and supporters.

For a full programme of events, visit skiptonpuppetfestival.co.uk