A new initiative launched in 2008 by theatre director Fouad Awad, director of the Mahmoud Darwish Municipal Cultural Center and the Department of Culture, Sports and Youth in the municipality of Nazareth The artistic director of the festival set his sights on the children’s theatre and laid the first building blocks for the establishment of a periodic theatre festival concerned with children’s affairs and their development in their different age stages. The Nazareth municipality adopted the idea and allocated the necessary budgets for it with the participation of foreign cultural bodies. The city lacked notable public and private artistic initiatives and projects for children outside the framework of the school or kindergarten.

The initiative came to fill a gap and open new horizons for the few who are working in this field and to develop the children’s theatre industry as well as give the children the right for a professional theatre and provide them with a cultural environment appropriate for their age group. The artistic festival management sought to: Creating new theatrical and artistic spaces and exploiting all the available spaces in the city Showing daily theatrical performances and over a period of two weeks Establish new and rich fields such as pantomime arts, puppet theatre, puppetry and marionette Hosting a large number of theatrical, musical, cinematic and artistic shows directed at children by local and foreign theatre groups Morning shows for school students and evening shows for the general audience of children and their parents Introducing and empowering children and participating in artistic and theatrical workshops: building and activating various puppets and plastic arts Develop and sponsor creative writing workshops for children Hosting and honouring distinguished artists Organizing a permanent exhibition of children’s theater arts: an exhibition of children’s book drawings, an exhibition of puppets and puppets for theaters specialized in puppet theatre, such as Jubeina Theater and Al-Sira Theater…etc.