PROVING there’s more to puppets than Sooty or Sesame Street, the Lighthouse in Poole is hosting an eight-day puppet festival.

Nine theatre companies are involved, putting on thirteen shows, an exhibition, a cabaret and six workshops.

The Lighthouse’s education programmer Helen Donaldson said: “Puppets and puppet shows have been around for centuries but over the last ten years there has been a resurgence.”

Poole’s puppet festival starts on Saturday with a show called The Chalk Giants, drawing inspiration from the chalk landscapes and legends that lie beneath.

Other highlights include extreme puppetry sketch show The Table, an award-winning show from Blind Summit Theatre, which proved one of the hits at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival.

For information on the festival, running from February 11 to 18, visit lighthousepoole.co.uk.