Community trust supports Pitlochry Festival Theatre Garden to re-open

THE summer season in Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Amphitheatre kicks off on Friday 7 July with its first summer show to take place in 2023, ‘The Secret Garden’, which also marks the reopening of the Explorers Garden, thanks to financial contributors including The Enchanted Forest Community Trust and underpinned by a significant anonymous philanthropic donation.

Pitlochry Festival Theatre is one of 17 charities operating in Perthshire to recently receive grant funding totalling £49,750 from the charitable organisation behind Scotland’s favourite sound and light show, The Enchanted Forest, established for the economic benefit of the community.

The Enchanted Forest Community Trust grant received by Pitlochry Festival Theatre has been specifically allocated towards the theatre’s health and safety programme, enabling vital ongoing maintenance work to take place in The Explorers Garden. The work, which includes the restoration of the paths within the Explorers Garden to keep visitors safe, has accelerated the re-opening of the garden ready for the theatre’s summer season.

Elizabeth Newman, Artistic Director at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, said:

“Pitlochry Festival Theatre is grateful to the Enchanted Forest Community Trust for the grant dedicated to supporting the Theatre to re-open the Explorers Garden for the forthcoming summer season. This grant has been dedicated to making the pathways through the Explorers Garden safe for public access so that we can welcome in our audience to the Amphitheatre for the two outdoor productions and into the sanctuary of the rest of the Garden too.”

Nela Popovic, Executive Director of The Enchanted Forest Community Trust, said:

“We’re delighted the grant funding provided by the Enchanted Forest Community Trust has been able to make a difference to the Garden’s pathways. The Theatre’s Explorers Garden is such a valued community asset, re-opening just in time for the summer season at the amphitheatre.

“Our desire is that the Enchanted Forest Community Fund makes a positive impact in the community in which the Enchanted Forest calls its home and it’s great to see this vision come to life.”

There are two shows being performed over the summer in Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Amphitheatre – ‘The Secret Garden’, running from 7 July to 19 August, based on the children’s classic written by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and ‘Sherlock Holmes’, running from 1 – 22 September 2023.

To access the full list of the successful charities which have benefitted from the Enchanted Forest Community Fund, please visit: The Community – The Enchanted Forest.