Every three years, the World Festival of the Puppet Theatres of Charleville-Mézières transforms the county town of the Ardennes into a vast cage where, following the strings of the street or of the show, come to life a motley population, tumblers and Artists, inveterate nomads of the country of the wonders.

From their treasure coffer, they pull out the tinsels of the dream : illusion, theatre, MIME, dance, music, cinema, photograph, video, painting, sculpture, "resourcefulness", and embroider with words and gestures the sumptuous costume which dresses Cendrillon in light.

For the magic of the festival, it's to link in the same hearty communion the bohemian artists and the sedentary inhabitants among whom often the former find, lodging, cover and friendship : but what are the "puffing middle-class men" of Rimbaud become ?

Then : Festival, Art, but especially meeting where, of thread, of hand, handsome, handshake, of shade and of light, each one matches a little its movements and its heart to the step of the other.

The festival it's :

- the Street, the In, the Off - more than 130000 spectators - more than 130 countries - hundred of puppeteers staying with the local inhabitants - a lot of congress - an International Fair of Show Arts' Book - Exhibitions - steady experimentations such as "marionnettes et thérapie" in hospital and psychiatric environment - more than 300 people for the preparation - a Festival "Out of the Walls" for the large suburbs of Charleville