Manipulate Festival is back with a bang for its 19th edition
4 – 10 February 2026
Returning to a full international edition in February 2026, Manipulate Festival is back with a jam-packed week full of stunning visuals, extraordinary stories and innovation in form. A celebration of excellence in visual theatre, puppetry and animated film, the festival features a thrilling mix of acclaimed international performances and bold new Scottish creations, alongside an expanded animated film programme presented for the very first time at Edinburgh’s iconic Filmhouse.
Breakdancing bugs, candyfloss puppets, live woodworking, stick men in the midst of an existential crisis, an illuminated octopus and a vodka-fuelled concert about death are just a few of the extraordinary delights awaiting you at this year’s festival. Whilst our work is primarily aimed at an adult audience, this year will also see a significant expansion of our community programme, with additional family activities taking place across Edinburgh in the weeks leading up to and following the festival. For professional artists there are also a range of training, networking and development opportunities on offer to develop your skills and expand your horizons.
Whatever you choose to attend at Manipulate, we hope to offer you a little something of the unexpected, and we look forward to welcoming you there in February.
Live Performance
This year we bring ten groundbreaking works of puppetry and visual performance including four World Premieres and one Scottish Premiere of pieces by Scottish and Scotland-based artists, plus five Scottish premieres from leading international companies.
Film Programme
Our film programme this year will be bigger than ever, based for the first time at Edinburgh’s iconic home of independent cinema – Filmhouse, showcasing the best and the bold from the imaginative world of animated storytelling.
Events and Community
Manipulate Festival invites local audiences to get involved through hands-on workshops and pop-up performances plus industry events and a Festival Party for everyone!
About the Festival
Manipulate Festival is an annual international celebration of excellence in animated film, puppetry and visual theatre, bringing the very best of international and Scottish work to adult audiences of over 3000 across Edinburgh and beyond each February. The programme features an eclectic range of boundary-pushing performances and screenings across many visual disciplines, creates a platform for creative exchange and discussion, and serves as a home for Scottish artists to experiment with and receive feedback on new ideas.
The Festival has gained recognition nationally and internationally for its innovative curation and unique blend of artforms, including animated film, circus, dance theatre, mime, object theatre, puppetry, physical theatre and visual theatre. The Festival offers an essential moment in the cultural calendar for audiences to gather and form communities of interest, for artists to network and exchange ideas, and for cross-cultural creative exchange between nations.
Climate
As an international festival, we are highly conscious of the impact of our activities and searching for new ways to reduce our footprint. We firmly believe that international cultural exchange is an important part of building human empathy and understanding across the globe, but it is also our view that we cannot use this belief as a reason not to take action on climate.
We are working to find new ways of programming internationally whilst reducing the volume of carbon-intensive travel that we rely on. Each year, we rely on fewer flights to bring companies to the UK. We also work with all companies visiting the festival to ensure their awareness of the Theatre Green Book and support practices which help to invest in a circular economy.
