The sixth Winter Words Festival has drawn to a close after ten busy, programme-packed days at Pitlochry Festival Theatre. By comparison with 2009, attendance numbers were up

 71%, and income from ticket sales was up 110%, demonstrating that this Festival is now firmly established as a very special event in the Scottish literary calendar. What a great way to kick start the Perth 800 celebrations!

Pitlochry Festival Theatre's Chief Executive, John Durnin, was delighted by the continuing success of Winter Words, the impact of which is felt throughout the local Perthshire economy, with other visitor attractions, accommodation providers and high street shops enjoying brisk trade over the ten Festival days. He commented:
"We've had an exceptionally strong and successful Winter Words this year. Expanding the Festival from its previous four day slot to a full ten days was felt to be risky in the current climate, but it`s now clear that we needn`t have worried. Sales and attendance figures have far exceeded our expectations and the response from visitors and authors alike has been so enthusiastic. The growing reputation of this Festival, its beautiful location and the opportunity it provides for book-lovers to get together and connect with a wonderful array of broadcasters, performers and authors is clearly a big attraction. We`ve had folks spending the entire day here: browsing the book fair; dropping into workshops; going to a literary lunch; seeing three or four events - from Gyles Brandreth, Neil Oliver and Elaine C. Smith to Barbara Dickson, Joss Ackland, Alasdair Gray and John Beatty; then finishing up with our free, late night Fearie Tales, which we were lucky enough to have read this year by River City star Deirdre Davies and PFT regular Dougal Lee".

Provost John Hulbert said: "Congratulations to Pitlochry Festival Theatre on delivering an event that was so successful for visitors enjoying it and for the area. I was among the audience for the Neil Oliver talk, and thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere, and entertainment of the event.

Perth 800 is about celebrating our history for the benefit of our communities today and in the future. The Winter Words Festival demonstrates perfectly how this can be achieved. I wish the Theatre as much success with the many other events planned for 2010, and would encourage everyone to find out what Perth 800 has to offer."

Other Winter Words highlights included the return of The Gruffalo; Don Paterson's literary lunch; and Christopher Brookmyre's razor sharp session, which was pure Pandaemonium! The programme also featured the Gardner's World presenter Alys Fowler, local literary and music legends Pete Clark & Kenneth Steven, and climbing author Andy Kirkpatrick`s awesome audio-visual presentation and talk - simply breathtaking!

This year, Winter Words included events at other venues for the first time, including Blair Castle, Aberfeldy's Watermill Bookshop and Dewar's World Of Whisky. A crowded ballroom in Blair Castle enjoyed Queen Victoria's Highland Diaries with local actress Jacqueline Dutoit, whilst Maisie Steven packed the Watermill to its heritage rafters with her unique account of childhood and Charles Maclean waxed lyrical on whisky in the perfect surrounds of Dewar's Aberfeldy distillery.

There are several more events coming up in Pitlochry Festival Theatre's Spring Season between now and Easter, from this weekend's concert by Alvin Stardust to Opera Della Luna's visit with Nightmare Songs (a new music-theatre piece about Gilbert & Sullivan) and G&S's The Sorcerer at the end of February, plus singer and songwriter Benny Gallagher, comedian, author and cook Hardeep Singh Kohli and mentalist Drew McAdam. Then there's the return of the Red Hot Chill Pipers, a welcome visit from Kate Rusby, and creative workshops for beginners on watercolours, costume design, Gustav Klimt and digital photography.

And with only five weeks to go before rehearsals start for the 2010 Summer Season of six plays, Scotland's leading theatre is clearly becoming more of a popular destination all year round than ever before.