The Festspielhaus is the venue of the annual Richard Wagner Festival, during which Wagner's operas, such as The Ring of the Nibelung and Parsifal, are given on a repertory basis. The festival draws thousands of opera fans to Bayreuth every August. It is very difficult to get tickets, because demand greatly exceeds supply; the waiting list usually takes seven or eight years.

Bibliography: Spotts, Frederic, Bayreuth: A History of the Wagner Festival, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994.