The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival was founded in 2014 to establish Chicago as a prominent center for the art of puppetry. This biennial Festival presents the highest quality local, national, and international puppet shows in venues across the city. Invited artists lead workshops, public presentations and talks as an integral part of the Festival offerings. Additionally, the Festival hosts the Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium devoted to the advancement of scholarship and research in the field of puppetry.

The Festival includes numerous family friendly performances at several locations in the city. See the complete list of family friendly performances here.