History

The first idea of organizing a large international puppetry festival in Ostrava was born in the mind of director Miroslav Vildman, who started his professional career at DLO, then repeatedly guested there and was its director in the 1990-1991 season before his promising career was interrupted by death. In October 1990 he managed to organize a small Czech-Polish festival called Puppets, Children and the World.

Vildman's desire to „bring the world to Ostrava and Ostrava to the world“ was realised by the director Jarmila Hájková and the dramaturge Hermína Motýlová thanks to a financial contribution from the Municipality of Ostrava, and in 1995 the first edition of the Spectaculo Interesse festival took place. Since then, the DLO has organised it every odd year, in 2017 for the thirteenth time. 

The Spectaculo Interesse Festival has gradually become the largest international puppetry festival in the Czech Republic and one of the most important in Europe.  Thanks to the festival,top puppeteers from Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Brazil, Czech Republic, China, Finland, France, Italy, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Lithuania, Hungary, Germany, Netherlands, Poland,Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan,Ukraine, Great Britain have performed in Ostrava.