Bayreuth Festival and foreign singers, long after they had been banned from all other venues across Germany (including heldentenor Max Lorenz, married to a well-known Jewish woman). Winifred's influence with Hitler was so strong that Hitler even wrote a letter (at her behest) to anti-fascist Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini, begging him to lead the festival. Toscanini refused. From 1933 to 1942, the festival was conducted principally by Karl Elmendorff. It was under the Third Reich that the festival made its first break from tradition, abandoning the deteriorating 19th century sets created by Richard Wagner. Many protested at the changes, including prominent conductors
North Carolina Potato Festival North Carolina Potato Festival North Carolina Potato Festival is an annual tradition in Northeastern North Carolina that celebrates one of the region's most important crops. Originally known as the Albemarle Potato Festival, which ran from 1940 through 1970, the once-prominent event was revived in 2001 as the North Carolina Potato Festival. Celebrated annually around mid-May, the festival has returned to its historical prominence as one of the largest regional draws in northeastern North Carolina. Taking place in historic downtown Elizabeth City, North Carolina, the event features the "National Potato Peeling Contest", "Little Miss Tater Tot pageant", potato sack races, a