Giants on the Move: A Puppet Street Parade

Witness a stunning spectacle as handmade puppets, created from bamboo and dyed cloth, move along Exhibition Road.

A man walks beside an elephant, a bird glides above another, a camel drifts next to a woman, a deer dances with a child. For brief moments, the streets of South Kensington will be taken over by a living, working procession, directed by puppeteer Dadi Pudumjee and presented by Serendipity Arts.

Weaving up Exhibition Road between the museum facades and the pavement cafés, you’ll experience a parade of giants built from bamboo frames and hand-stitched cloth, their surfaces patched with locally dyed indigo, red threads of wedding sarees, field-greens, and spice-like gold linens.

Each figure draws from a different community of India and the history that it carries. Together they form a gathering of many lives. As the procession moves forward, cloth becomes skin, bamboo becomes bone, and the road itself becomes a place of congregation and celebration rather than just passage.

Sound is made live, as drummers set the pace with a steady pulse, and the clacking of the puppeteers’ steps, along with the taps of the bamboo come together to form the score. For a short while, the city will hold a different rhythm, where many forms move together in balance, sharing space without hierarchy and imagining a world shaped by coexistence.

Visitor information

This is a drop-in event suitable for all ages. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

The event has step-free access.

To attend the Festival, please make sure to register for free. Registering is the only way to receive the latest Festival updates, a first look at the programme, and opportunities to book free tickets for popular events.

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