Pitlochry Festival Theatre originally came into being as a tent theatre on the 19th of May 1951, the brainchild of John Stewart who had visited the area during WW2 when he had concealed a slip of paper in a wayside post on the side of the River Tummel stating
'When peace is declared I shall return to this spot to give thanks to God and to establish my Festival'. On V/E day Stewart recovered that same slip of paper, spoke his silent prayer beneath the open sky and vowed again to fulfil his promise.
The structure was a rectangular steel framework, clad with asbestos, inside which the inner framework of the tent theatre was re-erected to form an auditorium capable of seating 500, together with bars and a delicatessen buffet. Although this building was to be semi-permanent, and it served well both audience and cast alike, thoughts would begin in earnest at the beginning of the seventies, to find a suitable permanent location worthy of Pitlochry’s Festival Theatre.
14 sites had either been considered or looked at out of desperation before a start was made on the present site at Port-na-Craig, where the foundation stone was laid in September ‘79 by Lord Home of the Hirsel. The new theatre's opening performance of Storm in a Teacup was given on the 19th of May 1981, the 30th anniversary of the very first performance in John Stewart’s tent.
The theatre now produces a wide range of performances with a summer season of plays and concerts with guest musicians from all over the world.