Hey guys,
check out the international Puppetry festival in Houlon, a suburb in Tel Aviv!
It's an awsome place, where you can find puppet shows for the kids, more complex shows both children and adults, and shows from international groups who come to israel to preform in the festival.
ALso, I heard a couple years ago that the festival hosted the first erotic puppet show in Israel.

Puppet Paradise in Holon

If you guys want to talk about this festival, or other great festivals please write here!

cheers

There are heaps of puppetry festivals all around the world. There's the UNIMA festival that happens every four years (http://www.unima.org), and the Charleville-Mezieres in France (http://www.festival-marionnette.com/) is very well-known. Over in Europe and the USA there are heaps (and heaps) of festivals, small and large. I've been to the Chuncheon Puppet Festival in South Korea (http://theatre.cocobau.com/english/info01.asp).

And there's a couple here in Australia on occasion:
http://www.schoolofpuppetry.com.au/tutorials.php/where-to-find-puppetry-festivals-in-australia

You can usually find puppet festivals wherever there is an UNIMA branch - and this list is most up-to-date for local centres. http://www.unima-usa.org/international/index.html

Wow I had no idea that Tel Aviv had a puppetry center. It looks to be as extensive as the center in Atlanta.  Very cool!   

We have just had a puppet festival here in Colombia South America.

Cool guys.. Have you ever participated Festivals like this? and what do you do in the puppetry world?

Yes I have participated in both national and regional festivals of PofA here in the US. Some as simply are participant and others as a performer. Even presented a workshop at a regional festival along side Robert LeRoy Smith who was also a marionette builder. I am not involved in puppetry as much as I was aside from offering the site here but do a commission build or consultation from time to time.

Cool guys.. Have you ever participated Festivals like this? and what do you do in the puppetry world?

I was actually a 'volunteer' for the Korean one. Since I was the only non-Korean volunteer, and also didn't speak a word of their language, I mostly watched shows.

For the puppetry festivals I've been to I've always just been as a guest; however, as a theatre technician I have volunteered/worked on a number of festivals, as well as performed in one of them.

As for what I do... I guess you could call me a part-time educator, and a part-time builder of shadow puppets. I have a 'varied' job

and,  where in OZ do you operate from, considering you get around so much?

I'm in Melbourne - however I don't really 'get around'. The S. Korean festival was a trip with a friend in 2004 (that's why I was a volunteer; they pay for vol. accommodation, food, etc. so it was cheaper to volunteer than to go just for sightseeing); the most recent trips to festivals overseas were partly paid for with travel grants; and the festivals that I've actually participated in have been right here in Melbourne.

I've been very very lucky. That and the local festivals were mostly voluntary too. (The Melbourne Fringe Fest was my long-standing annual one. I first volunteered for that in 2000, then again the next year - we also happened to perform during the 2001 fest for uni - then 2002 our uni class performed as part of the festival. 2003 my friends and I performed in it as a company, then the year after I got a job with the fest. 2005 I was probably reporting on it, and 2006 I stage managed a friend's show for it... 2007 onwards I've not been involved)

I don't do anything out of state, unless traveling for a festival (or a show - I've trekked to Sydney just to see The Lion King and Ronnie Burkett)... so statistically speaking when it comes doing theatre, I am just a stay at home kind of girl

(I should also mention that puppetry education for adults here in Australia is practically non-existent, so traveling for workshops or other experiences is almost a must. Most of the well-known puppeteers are in my home town, but even then you won't find regular workshops easily. We also don't really have festivals. There's an annual puppet program at Adelaide's Fringe Festival, however that's geared for audiences and only includes performances. This year there was an attempt to set up a small fest in country Victoria, which apparently was successful enough to be - hopefully - produced again in *2014*. There are irregular summits, which occur whenever the organisers get around to it it seems. In other words... if you want to go to a puppetry festival, you need to leave Australia to do it. Or wait around for a few years )

We have just had a puppet festival here in Colombia South America.

What is the name of the festival? Do they have a web site?