Bayreuth Festival

The Bayreuth Festival (German: Bayreuther Festspiele, Bavarian: Bareida Festspui, East Franconian: Baraida Fesdspil) is a music festival held every year in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner are performed. It was Wagner's own idea to start a festival for his operas in Bayreuth in a theatre which he designed himself because he was not satisfied with the way that theatres were usually designed.

The theatre that he designed is called the Festspielhaus (Festival House). Wagner watched the theatre being built, making sure that it was done the way he wanted it. He had some new ideas about theatre design. For example: he wanted the orchestra pit to be so low that the orchestra would not be seen by the audience.

When the theatre was opened in 1876 his cycle of operas called the Der Ring des Nibelungen was performed complete for the first time.

The festival immediately became internationally famous. Almost every serious musician in Europe wanted to go to Bayreuth to hear Wagner's music performed there. Composers usually either loved it and were strongly influenced by it, or they hated it and reacted against it.

The festival still continues now. Every August there is a festival of Wagner's operas. It is extremely difficult to get tickets because so many people want to go. People often wait for ten years before they can get a ticket.