All Over Albany

West Fulton Puppet Festival 2017

From the description for The Legend of the Banana Kid: "The Legend of the Banana Kid features 20 of our hand-crafted glove, mouth and rod puppets, and a slew of flying and twirling styrofoam bananas." What other sort of bananas would you ever want?

The West Fulton Puppet Festival returns to its eponymous hamlet in Schoharie County July 7-8. Now in its third year, the festival includes performances of all sorts of puppetry. Some condensed blurbage:

The 2017 West Fulton Puppet Festival will feature work suitable for the whole family by puppetry artists, and one circus performer, from New York, Maine and Florida, playing in rotation throughout the two-day Festival. The lineup includes Double Image Theater Lab's I Laid an Egg, join Margot and her imaginary friend, Egg, as they take us on a surprising journey into the wonderful world of make-believe ... Morgan Kelly's Island Turtle, explore the coastal ecosystems through the eyes of a child and includes a post-show workshop ... Seano Presents: Shakespeare's Clowns! performed by former Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey circus clown Sean Fagan, it's part poetry, puppetry, parade, and play ... and the award-winning Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers, who ride into town with their wild west cowboy adventure The Legend of the Banana Kid ... Andy Gaukel's Schweinehund--a live puppetry and animation piece inspired by the life of Nazi concentration camp survivor, Pierre Seel--will round-out the Festival with a special presentation for adult audiences only ...

The Festival takes place in and around West Fulton Park, and utilizes The Hall at Panther Creek Arts, plus non-traditional performance spaces, including nearby barns, the Historic Schoolhouse, and a circus tent.

Here's the schedule of events. Admission for the puppet performances is free, but tickets are required. They're available on site the day of, starting with the beginning of each day.

West Fulton is a hamlet in the town of Fulton -- it's pretty much right in the center of Schoharie County, just about an hour from Albany.