A replica of the Moon which attracted more than 85,000 visitors when it was displayed in the county last year, will go on display at a different site next month.

Luke Jerram's Museum of the Moon will be the centrepiece of this year's Tunbridge Wells Puppetry Festival.

Back for a fourth time, the festival, which runs from Saturday, October 9 to Sunday, October 17, will take place at venues and open-air civic spaces including Calverley Grounds, Royal Victoria Place, Trinity Theatre, Assembly Hall, Camden Centre and The Forum, with some ticketed events and others.

The awe-inspiring touring artwork of the Moon features a replica using120dpi detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface.

The installation comes with a surround sound composition created by BAFTA and Ivor Novello award winning composer Dan Jones and will sit elevated in Calverley Grounds on Friday, October 15, Saturday, October 16 and Sunday, October 17 with free entry.

The festival programme brings high-quality, innovative puppetry work with new works, workshops running in collaboration with local charity Mental Health Resources for teenagers and education workshops in schools with local charity Empathy Action and Russell Dean from Strangeface Theatre Company.

There is also an online project Unlocked for recent arts graduates to present puppetry work on video in the run-up to the event.

Aardman model making workshops run by an expert model-makers who have worked on some of Aardman’s best-loved titles will take place at Royal Victoria Place on Saturday, October 16 when visitors can create their own model of one of the world-famous characters such as Gromit, Feathers or Shaun the Sheep to take home.

Opening the Festival is local theatre company, Strangeface, performing Eli and the Golem at Trinity Theatre on Wednesday, October 13, while after the festival artistic director Russell Dean will be taking the puppets to meet giant 3.5m Syrian child refugee puppet Little Amal in Folkestone for The Walk in support of refugees.

Joint festival directors Alison Bundy and Ailsa Molyneaux said: “We’re especially proud that Museum of The Moon will bring an extra outdoor element of awe and wonder to this year’s festival. It, and the 40 diverse and innovative contemporary puppetry events, will allow audiences and the community to reconnect following the adversity of the last couple of years. It’s a complete joy to be able to present live work once again.”

The festival is supported by Arts Council Lottery England and sponsored by Royal Tunbridge Wells Together and is partnering with Visual Elements Ltd.

For the full programme click here.

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