Wagner wanted the festival to be in a small town where people could just concentrate on his music. Bayreuth already had a theatre, the Markgräfliches Opernhaus, but it was not suitable for modern opera. The town did not have a cultural life that would be in competition with Wagner's music. Another reason for choosing Bayreuth was that it was outside the area where the rights to perform his operas were not under his control (he had sold these rights many years earlier in order to raise money).