Arts & Culture for all ages
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Arts & Culture for all ages ☁︎ ☁︎
The Niagara Children’s Festival is an exciting explosion of creativity, offering live theatre, performances and arts-based activities for young audiences and their families.
Niagara Children’s Festival 2026!
Join us in downtown St. Catharines May 14-17 for a celebration of Arts & Culture for all ages!
The Plays
Burrow
A co-production of
Les Incomplètes &
Théâtre du Gros Mécano
Deep in the forest, two little creatures bustle about, collecting their provisions. Acorns, pine nuts and mushrooms, pebbles, apples and branches: every item is counted and tucked away in the burrow’s belly. One inventories, rations and studies… The other writes, ponders, relishes… Their friendship, peppered with little quibbles, sews the flow of the seasons. Yet somehow, something has come between them.
Can we live without others? What kind of effort does friendship take? How are we to reconcile our differences? Burrow brings the young audience member on the pathway of friendship and living together, in a playful, poetic and wordless theatre experience.
Club Origami
By Ichi Ni San
Commissioned and produced by
Little Big Dance
Rip, fold and scrumple!
Shall we see what we can make with a single square of paper?
As you scrunch the paper, see how your imagination begins to dance...
Dive into the magical world of Club Origami, an immersive and interactive dance show inviting audiences to create, imagine and explore whole new ways of thinking, playing and moving. Dance, fashion and live music meet the magic of origami to sweep us up on a spirited and inspiring adventure in a land made purely of paper and play.
Guardians
of the Gods
A Theatre Direct Production
By Erik Uddenberg
Created and Developed with Unga Klara Theatre
Guardians of the Gods is a play about what unites children across the globe: living in a world ruled by adults. Sometimes adults seem like gods—powerful, protective, and kind. But they can also be unpredictable and dangerous. What adults often overlook is children’s unique power: their ability to see right through them.
The play has been developed based on interviews with children and adults from 11 different countries across five continents. Over the next year, the play will be performed in all 11 countries in their respective languages. The play is part of The Childhood Project – a major international collaboration between all participating theatres, from Bangladesh to Finland.
The project aims to enhance culture for children and young people all over the world.
While
We Wait
A play for young audiences created by Gale Force Theatre
While We Wait follows a young girl named Leo and her discovery of a magical garden shed. As the seasons pass, she struggles against the changes in her own life. This show is a celebration of inter-species kinship, explores the challenge of facing change, and revels in the power of noticing. The piece features live music, puppetry and is an enchanting introduction to live performance for young audiences.
While We Wait premiered in November 2024 and was performed in Canning, Parrsboro and Chester, NS. In January 2025 it was performed at the Bus Stop Theatre for a weekend of four sold-out shows.
Why Don’t We Together
An Immersive Audio Visual Storytelling Experience from Dear Bear Multi-Arts
Why Don’t We Together is an immersive, audio-visual experience that takes place in a custom-built structure called “The Hut.” When audiences enter The Hut, they are met with a choice between several curated audio stories, all written and recorded by a variety of handpicked Ontario artists. These stories are accompanied by rich sound design and dynamic lighting - the walls, seats, ceilings, and airwaves come alive as audiences get transported into the world of each story.
thank you
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thank you ☁︎ ☁︎
Festival Sponsors
Community Programming Sponsors
Theatre Partners
