When in 1944 two men visited Pitlochry, who could tell what the next five decades would bring and how John Stewart’s vision would be achieved and subsequently developed.

Stewart at that time was a director of the then well-known commercial college, Skerry’s, but he also had a strong interest in theatre which stemmed from his association with the amateur 'Curtain Theatre'. A group that had encouraged such talents as Duncan Macrae and Robert McLellan. This interest led him to establish the Park Theatre Club in Glasgow’s West End in 1941. Dubbed ‘Glasgow’s First Little Theatre’ it grew in stature to the point of having a fully professional cast by the time it closed in 1949, when, at the height of its success but with no prospect of a larger theatre being built in Glasgow, Stewart reluctantly 'shut the doors'. Stewart declared somewhat obliquely in his final curtain speech -'Glasgow’s loss will be Scotland's gain'. It was again to Pitlochry that he looked, the romantic in him having concealed a slip of paper in a wayside post on this side of the River Tummel during the war. '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.