Night of Dread Festival
Bring Out Your Fears
Night of Dread is Clay and Paper Theatre’s beloved October ritual—an immersive, family-friendly festival where art, fire, and community come together to confront our fears. Through giant puppets, pageantry, music, and hands-on creation, we transform dread into shared power and collective joy.
About Night of Dread
For 25 years, Clay and Paper Theatre’s Night of Dread Festival has invited the Davenport community to gather in the fall and confront what frightens us—both personally and collectively. Running from October 2–25, 2025, this much-loved, free, multi-arts festival creates space to call on, mock, and ultimately banish our fears, big and small, for ourselves, our neighborhoods, and our world.
Throughout October, the festival offers free, public, hands-on workshops where participants help create puppets, masks, props, shadow shows, and costumes. These creative gatherings culminate in a powerful theatrical park pageant featuring giant puppets, fire spinners, stilt walkers, installations and live music. Through art-making, puppetry, music, and ritual, Night of Dread invites us to face the darkness together and transform our fears into collective action.
Please check out and download our our Night of Dread 2025 poster designed by Kathryn Durst.
Key Festival Dates
Night of Dread art-making opportunities span the entire month of October. Some of our specialized programming, like the Magpie Club’s stilt walking training, does start earlier so that youth have the extended learning period needed to become confidant on their stilts for performance at the Night of Dread Festival Pageant.
Opening Event
October 2 - 3 to 7pm Dufferin Grove Organic Farmer’s Market
Free Workshops
October 3 to 19 Shadow Puppetry Creation, Giant Puppetry Performance and Lantern Making Workshops
September 21 to October 25 Youth Stilt Walking and Performance Troupe (12 to 18)
Magpie Club
October 3 to 22 Drop-in puppet, mask, props and costume creation studio
Community Studio
October 22 - Evening Various roles available to support the final Pageant event
Volunteer Training
October 25 - 5 to 9pm A theatrical park pageant featuring giant puppets, fire spinners, stilt walkers, installations and live music.
Night of Dread Pageant
The Night of Dread Experience
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Magpie Club
Stilt walking training, costume and mask creation, and printmaking are some of the Magpie activities leading up to their Pageant performance.
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Workshops
This year’s workshops include Lantern-Making, an Intro to Performance with Giant Puppets and Shadow Puppetry Creation for the Forest of Shadows installation.
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Community Studio
Explore different puppet building, print and art making techniques. Help us build the Fear of the Year image, make and repair puppets, masks and props.
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Volunteering
Be a puppeteer, event assistant or park steward. Whatever your volunteering goals, Night of Dread has a role for you!
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Pageant
Everything you need to know about the main event: park map and guide, performance schedule, and the spectacular line up of artists.
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FAQs
What to wear, what to bring, accessibility info, how to participate. Check out our Most Frequently Asked Questions section.
Want to participate, sponsor, or collaborate?
Email clayandpaper@gmail.com