Puppets that capture the imagination of all ages will take to Verdun's main drag during Festival Marionnettes Plein la Rue. Every Friday and Saturday, from August 26 to September 3, visitors can catch giant puppet creations strolling down Promenade Wellington or watch a series of hand puppet shows at surrounding spots. Magic tricks and animatronics will be on full display.

The festival will offer more than 20 free short puppet shows spread across nearby venues and parks.

You could catch woodland creatures walking along Wellington on August 26 between 5 and 7 p.m. The treelike figures will bring sounds of nature with them and invite people walking by to enjoy their canopy of branches. The troupe behind the performance, Toxique Trottoir, want to remind viewers about the importance of preserving forests.

Or on August 26 at 10 a.m. you could catch a 25-minute Unexpected Theatre show with Napoleon and Colomban at Madelinots Park. The duo wearing uncanny masks and costumes are comical maintenance workers who pick up all kinds of waste, including unusual finds. The short performance of commedia dell'arte includes dance, music, puppetry and object theatre.

If you're more interested in how massive puppets are made, there will be a 45-minute workshop on the Presbytery grounds on August 26 at 11 a.m. Artists will assemble a puppet from scratch, showing viewers the stages of puppet design work and the mechanisms that make character movement possible.

A special closing show on September 10 will cost $7 to attend. Tickets will be available as of August 8.

Fourteen Quebec companies and two international ones are collaborating to provide entertainment during the festival. The full programming line-up is available here.