The Bayreuth Festival is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of stage works by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived and promoted the idea of a special festival to showcase his own works, in particular his monumental cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and Parsifal.
Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, the festival's main venue, in 2006
Bayreuth Festspielhaus in 1882
Felix Mottl conducted Tristan und Isolde at Bayreuth in 1886
Patronage certificate for funding the Bayreuth festival, issued 22. May 1922
Bayreuth is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of Upper Franconia and has a population of 72,148 (2015). It hosts the annual Bayreuth Festival, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented.
Town square
Bayreuth around 1900
The Old Castle
The New Castle