SAMPO Festival
International Puppet Theatre Festival
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Performances
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Outdoor events
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Exhibitions
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Workshops
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Discussions
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Festival Club
Next SAMPO Festival will take place 27.-31.8.2025 – first performances are out now!
This year, the festival will feature amazing puppetry and visual theatre from Germany, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia and Italy, among others!
Performances that will take place at Annantalo have been published and the tickets are available!
Performance venues for the 2025 festival include Sampo Puppet Theatre, Annantalo, Sellosali (Espoo) and Maunulatalo among other places. Sampo’s Fairytale Café will host an atmospheric festival club and discussion about the festival’s performances. The program also includes exhibitions and workshops.
More program announcements coming soon – stay tuned!
SAMPO Festival offers memorable, touching and entertaining performances for children and adults. One of the biggest puppetry festivals in Finland, SAMPO Festival showcases artists from across the field, different styles of puppetry and visual theatre, and crosses borders between different fields of art. In addition to performances, the program also features films, workshops, outdoor performances, discussions and diverse artist meetings.
SAMPO Festival gives a place for encountering, also for professional puppeteers.
The program books of the earlier festivals can be looked at at the bottom of the page.
Jenni Haukio was the patron of the 2022 SAMPO Festival. You can read her greeting to the festival here.
President Tarja Halonen was the patron of the 2023 SAMPO Festival. You can read her greeting to the festival here.
WELCOME TO A WORLD OF STORIES!
The Festival is organized by Puppet Theatre Sampo, that was founded in 1977 and has its premises in the center of Helsinki.
We invite people of all ages, shapes and sizes to enjoy the cosy atmosphere of our Puppet Theatre Centre and see puppetry performances for children and adults. We offer also art education: workshops and theme days. Sampo´s Fairytale Café is also open to the public at the theatre.
We are driven by imagination, humor and music. Welcome to be inspired by them! You may find some happiness, the treasure of friendship, a sparkle of joy in the middle of a busy day.
Gentle, bright, surprising sounds and melodies transport you from one atmosphere and world to another. Visual elements, reflections, movements, sounds and objects – their play enchants everyone. With the power of imagination, we travel together into space, ride a carousel or go on a walk on the streets of the city!
This performance is perfect for the youngest members of the family, babies and toddlers, but adults will also get a wonderful, calming experience from the performance.
"This performance is like getting a massage for your soul!" - audience comment from January 2025
This play is a subtle and inspiring tale about friendship and its meaning. One day, the Lion finds an injured Bird in his autumnal garden. This Lion is different from other lions: he is very sensitive and caring, so he allows Bird to live in his cozy home. Thus begins an unexpected but true and profound friendship between two very different animals. Days go by, Christmas comes and goes, Bird recovers and wants to leave, so the friends inevitably have to part... However, true friendship never disappears - the warm feeling always travels together, and a dear friend lives in a special place – in the heart.
Until the moment when the friends meet again...
The Performance was awarded with the “Golden Stage Cross” for the best Puppet and Object Theatre Performance in Lithuania in the year 2023.
The Kaunas State Puppet Theatre is an exceptional, professional, and cozy theatre for all age groups. The time just melts away in this theatre, which is filled with a rich variety of classic fairy tales and contemporary theatrical performances, artistic activities, and entertainment with lasting value for the whole family. Professional actors welcome the audience into imaginative creative spaces, where internationally recognized performances are created and presented. The theatre spreads eternal values and shapes a creative, conscious, art-loving Person of the Future.
Recently theatre celebrated its 65th anniversary season, which combines the history of Kaunas State Puppet Theatre with new trends in contemporary puppet and object theatre. This is reflected in the theatre's repertoire, which offers performances that appeal to every viewer - both children and adults.
TANGRAM Kollektiv (Germany): Shades of Shadows (Schattenwerfer)
A discovery tour into the world of shadows
”Let us discover the World of Shadows!“
A Trip through an enchanted City leads us to a very special chamber. Three white Canvases are creating a room and space for projections. Inside the Chamber, a table, a small Piano, some objects and two flashlights. Suddenly the light changes and two puppetry players lead us on suprising paths into the magical universe of shadows. Laws of Physics dont apply, expectations are crossed.
Shadows entering through the backdoor and stealing our Stuff! Everyday object shadows are running wild for their own little dance of freedom. They are getting bigger, and smaller, they split and they merge. Even the puppeteers shadows multiply and are creating a dialogue. Shadows become whatever they imagined to be. Shadows become bodies, bodies become shadows and then for a second being alone feels a lot less lonely.
An ode to the power of Imagination!
”Schattenwerfer“ isn't your everyday Shadow Piece. Its about the relationship and the dialogue between a Shadow and his Body, and questions playfully the hierarchy of this relation. It sharpens our view for these black strange things that follow us everywhere and stick to our feet like gum, that we can´t run away from even if we are super fast.
Sarah Chaudon is a french-german puppeteer who graduated at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (HMDK) in Stuttgart. She works mainly in Germany and France. She is part of the TANGRAM collective and is working with multiple companies including Figurenkombinat and TARTproduktion.
Clara Palau y Herrero
Freelance Puppetry artist residing at Wagenhallen Stuttgart
Clara studied Theatrical-science and art History at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Puppetry at the HMDK Stuttgart and IT Barcelona.
She works as a guest performer including the Schauburg München and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg/Staatsoper Hamburg.
Tobias Tönjes
Tobias Tönjes graduated in Theatre Studies and Philosophy from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. For 2015/2016 he worked as an directors assistant at Schauspielbühnen Stuttgart. Tobias freelanced as a directors assistent at Wilhelma Theater, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Theater Rampe and Backsteinhaus Produktion. As a dramaturg he has worked on pieces from Backsteinhaus Produktion, Ariel Doron, and the Tangram Kollektiv.
Sarah Chaudon – Concept, building and Playing
Clara Palau y Herrero – Concept, building and Playing
Grant-aided by the Landesverband Freie Tanz und Theaterschaffende Baden- Württemberg e.V. with money from the Ministery for Science, Research and Art Baden- Württemberg
FESTIVAL CLUB
The SAMPO Festival Club provides a meeting place for artists and the public at the festival. Memorable conversations about the performances and everything else, exhilarating meetings, serious and less serious subjects, laughter and relaxing!
Elina’s Living Room
Elina’s Living Room meets during SAMPO Festival on the stage of Puppet Theatre Sampo. There will be talk about the festival’s performances, the life of a puppeteer, art, miracles, and everyday mysteries. The evening will be hosted by puppet theatre artist and director Elina Lajunen.
EXHIBITIONS
There are exhibitions on the festival, giving you a chance to get to know more about puppetry.
Puppets From Around the World
This exhibition about the wonderful world of theatre puppets is a permanent exhibition at Puppet Theatre Sampo. The visitor can explore puppet traditions of different cultures and see puppets from around the globe from the 19th century to the present.
