It all started in June 2004, when Alistair Moffat had the idea of holding a small literary gathering in Melrose. Alistair was joined that year by Paula Ogilvie and, what started with a few speakers and an audience of 400, has turned into a 4-day extravaganza with an audience of more than 34,000 attending in 2019. We’ve certainly come a long way since that first year in the old Wynd Theatre in the centre of Melrose which saw the beginning of that great partnership between Alistair and Paula who are still running things today (with the support of a very small team of dedicated helpers).

We moved from the Wynd Theatre, via the Corn Exchange and the Melrose Festival Ball Marquee to Harmony Garden, which has been home to the festival since 2007. In 2015 we expanded our offering to include the Harmony Orchard where we created a festival village with an event marquee, storytelling tent, bar and a range of tipis, stretch tents and vintage vehicles including an old fire engine selling hot dogs, a crème brûlée van, ice cream served from a vintage bicycle and lots of coffee…