Giant puppets are suited to outdoor performance, especially street theatre and processions, because they are visible above the crowd while remaining on the same level.

In Shimla, Himalayas and other areas of India, the Dussehra festivals of September and October celebrate "the triumph of Good over Evil",[2] and 15-metre puppets are carried in procession and then burned.

"The principal demons of the epic Ramayana are represented: Ravana with his ten heads, the symbol of destruction and the forces of Evil, accompanied by his son Meghanada (Indrajit) and brother Kumbhakarna.

[2][4] In the Beembe of Mouyondzi, Congo-Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, the "anthropomorphic musical instruments ... reach the height of 1.5 metres and are carved from wood and hollowed to resonate the breaths of those that carry them, their mouth placed over the puppet’s back".

[2][5] In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (former Zaire) the Bwende people take part in a funeral ceremony that consists of carrying, on a stretcher, an enormous puppet called niombo, an effigy to the dead chief.

Stitched in woven fabric ornate with symbols, it is made of wood, raffia and herbs and contains the dried remains of the chief.

The Pende people lift a mbambi puppet, from 6 to 10 metres (19.7 to 32.8 feet) high, deep into the bush, at the end of a masked dance.

[11] "Giant, grotesque figures such as Gayant, Cagenon, Saint Michael and his devil"[2] were used in a festival procession commemorating a French attempt to recapture Douai from the Dutch.

[2][4] In 1973 Dominique Houdart directed Der Tag des großen Gelehrten Wu, which included "giant linear puppets made from aluminium"[2] gesturing with their own manipulation rods and performing together with actors.

This involved "a string puppet 9 metres high, encased in mobile scaffolding to which all the points of leverage and manipulation were attached (chords, pulleys, etc).

This giant puppet was manipulated by a crowd of "servers" dressed in red livery that jump, pull and generally busy themselves with its levers with perfect coordination".

[13] The opening ceremony of the Athens Olympic Games in 2004 featured "a gigantic head exemplifying Cycladic art emerging from the water.

[16] Golden Tree Productions' 40-ton Man Engine,[17] "the largest mechanical puppet ever made in Britain",[18] representing a Cornish Tin Miner, was commissioned by the Cornwall Mining World Heritage Site for their "Tinth"[18] anniversary.

[27][28] Trigger Productions Limited of Bristol produced The Hatchling, a giant pterosaur-shaped dragon puppet, of kite construction, which processed through the streets and then flew over the sea at Plymouth, England, in 2021.