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Manipulate Festival: The Dab Hands

The Dab Hands are an invitation to play for any age. They are giant colourful light-up hand puppets bringing playfulness, colour and warmth to the chilly February streets.

Manipulate Festival: The Dab Hands

About Manipulate Festival: The Dab Hands

The Dab Hands are looking for each other. They are gathering to give the Manipulate Festival opening a big hand. But they keep missing each other. You’d think that would be impossible given that they are 3 metres tall and light up like beacons in the night, but they’re not the brightest all the same. Please help them where you can, and give them a wave if you see one!

The Dab Hands are an invitation to play for any age. They are giant colourful light-up hand puppets bringing playfulness, colour and warmth to the chilly February streets.

Check back in January for an update on where in the city to find the hands over our opening and closing weekends of the festival.

Thursday 2 February 5pm
Central Edinburgh

Saturday 11 February 4pm & 6pm
Central Edinburgh

by Ronan McMahon, Lucy McGreal and Suzie Fergusson.

Design by Fergus Dunnet

Image Credit: Fergus Dunnet

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Other Events at Various Venues or Manipulate Festival

Manipulate Festival: Coffee With Sugar?

4th February 2026 - 5th February 2026

Using thousands of coffee beans, flying candyfloss, biographical fragments, historical sources, video art and live music, ‘Coffee with Sugar?’ is a visually striking performance!

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Manipulate Festival: Size Matters

5th February 2026 - 6th February 2026

Blending puppetry, science, and surrealist theatre, Julia and Mamoru and their puppet doubles explore how time and perception shift with size.

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Manipulate Festival: Don Quixote (is a Very Big Book)

7th February 2026 - 8th February 2026

In his new one-man show, Dik Downey (Green Ginger, Pickled Image, Opposable Thumb) weaves together the crazed delusions of Don Quixote with his own struggle against reality.

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Manipulate Festival: The Wood Paths

9th February 2026 - 10th February 2026

Wood Paths is a celebration of humanity’s endless creativity and our desire to understand, to shape, and to find beauty in the mess.

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