In February 2024, Black Country Touring launched Smethwick Puppetry Festival, a small, local festival designed primarily to bring accessible family-friendly performances to Smethwick during February half-term. BCT had a high concentration of promoters within Smethwick so saw an opportunity to try something new by bringing them together under the banner of a festival.

The first festival in 2024 featured mainly family-friendly performances and workshops with a couple of teen and adult performances. As the festival took place over February half-term, we wanted to focus on engaging families but programmed some performances for teenagers and adults as a trial. We were really pleased with engagement across the week with over 1000 people attending the festival. As a result, the festival has continued to run annually during February half-term since 2024.

The festival has always been Pay What You Can with tickets for most events starting at £3 and free options always available for those who need them. This keeps events accessible to families and those on a lower income.

Since 2024, audience numbers have grown and we have families that come back to the festival every year. Local residents are starting to expect the festival each year and look forward to coming back. We are also seeing the expansion of the festival from a small, local festival into something more widely known about. In 2026, we mapped the postcodes of those who attended the festival and have seen people travelling from all across the UK to come to the festival. The building of interest and a following outside of Smethwick is really encouraging as we look to expand the festival in future years.

To find out more about this year’s festival go to www.bctouring.org.uk/puppet

2024 - 2026 Case Study: