Alma d’Arame is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Two decades of encounters, shared dreams and art that unites and transforms. This year, the Montemor-o-Novo International Puppet Festival is even more special: we are celebrating acceptance, a fundamental value that has always been at the heart of our journey.
Acceptance means recognising, welcoming and respecting the diversity of people, ideas, feelings and realities. It means making space for others, without prejudice or judgement, and creating opportunities for dialogue and coexistence. It also means accepting ourselves, with our strengths and weaknesses, and finding serenity even in the face of what we cannot change. Acceptance is not resignation, but rather an act of openness, respect and understanding in the face of the world’s and life’s diversity; these are the values in which we believe.
We believe, today as we did twenty years ago, that art is one of the keys to a fairer, freer and more humane world. That is why we are once again opening the doors of Montemor-o-Novo to the world, in a festival without borders, where people and countries come together in the diversity that unites and enriches us.
In this commemorative edition, we welcome companies and artists from Portugal, England, the Netherlands, Brazil, France, Italy and Canada. Together, we celebrate acceptance and collective creation, in an atmosphere of celebration, reflection and discovery.

The 18th Montemor-o-Novo International Puppet Festival will be a space open to themes such as identity, our bodies, self-discovery, acceptance, reality, loneliness, fear, dreams, death and friendship. Puppets, theatre, performances, music, exhibitions and talks will fill the town, in a festival where anything is possible and everything is welcomed.
We reaffirm the importance of walking together, of building bridges and of celebrating what brings us together, and what sets us apart.
These will be days of true and imagined stories, of reunions between artists and audiences, of questions and answers about the act of living, with art as a space for freedom, acceptance and solidarity.
Come and celebrate these 20 years of Alma d’Arame with us!

Amândio Anastácio