Bayreuth Festival difficult to get tickets, because demand (estimated at 500,000) greatly exceeds supply (58,000 tickets); the waiting time is between five and ten years (or more). The process entails submitting an order form every summer; applicants are usually successful after about ten years. Failure to make an application every year results in being placed at the back of the queue. Although some tickets are allocated by lottery, preference is given to members of the Society of Friends of Bayreuth (financial donors), famous patrons, and to regional and international Wagner societies, which are distributed to their own members through lottery or the
Bayreuth–Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg railway Bayreuth–Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg railway The Bayreuth–Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg line is a single-track main line railway in the German state of Bavaria. It is an important section of the so-called "Saxon-Franconian trunk line" from Dresden to Nuremberg. The line was opened in 1853 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany. It was the first Bavarian railway line to be built and leased to the state. That is, it was financed by the city of Bayreuth and the line was built and subsequently leased by the Bavarian government. The route from Neuenmarkt to Bayreuth was opened on 28 November 1853 by the Royal Bavarian