Engraving entitled Sketch of Stratford Jubilee Booth or Amphitheatre, published by The Gentleman's Magazine, October 1769.

In 1769 the actor-manager David Garrick (1717–1779) organised a Shakespeare Jubilee at Stratford-upon-Avon. The three days of festivities were to include a pageant, fireworks and horse races, and there were to be dances in an octagonal wooden amphitheatre, called the Rotunda, specially built for the occasion on the banks of the River Avon. The Rotunda could accommodate 1000 people and was to be the location of the Jubilee’s high point, Garrick’s recitation of his Ode of Dedication to a Shakespeare statue that he was presenting to the town.

The first day of celebrations went well, with processions and a performance of Thomas Arne’s oratorio Judith at Holy Trinity Church, conducted by the composer. At night there were fireworks and a display of transparencies (paintings on silk back-lit by lamps) which showed scenes from Shakespeare’s plays. By the second day, heavy rain had set in; the intended pageant could not take place and it was too wet for more fireworks. However, Garrick performed his Dedication Ode with great success, and there was a masquerade ball with dancing until dawn, when the rising river forced revellers to abandon the Rotunda. The wooden building was surrounded by water and came close to collapse when it settled in the soft earth. The rain stopped at noon on the final day and the horse racing went ahead despite the waterlogged ground. More fireworks and dancing rounded off the event.

Garrick lost £2,000 on the event, but offset his losses by writing a play, The Jubilee, in which the rained-off pageant featured. It was staged in London at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1769 and 1770 and had spectacular success.