SAMPO Festival

SAMPO Festival is an international festival for visual theatre and puppet theatre, organized annually in August at the heart of the Finnish capital Helsinki. 2026 will be the tenth edition of the festival - a great cause for a big celebration! We will invite performers from around Europe again, to perform at one of Finland's biggest festivals for visual theatre and puppetry!

SAMPO Festival offers memorable, touching and entertaining performances for children and adults, showcases artists from across the field, programming different styles of puppetry and visual theatre, and crosses borders between different fields of art. In addition to performances, the program also features workshops, exhibitions, discussions and diverse artist meetings and other events.

The festival is organized by Puppet Theatre Sampo. Performances also take place at other venues nearby. Collaborators of SAMPO Festival are Helsinki City, Helsinki Festival, Espoo City and Theatre WHS Union among other establishments.