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 Army, German Army ("Bundeswehr") and the German Border Police ("Bundesgrenzschutz"). In the early 1990s, following the end of the Cold War the garrison tradition of the town came to an end when the "Bundeswehr's" Margrave Barracks ("Markgrafenkaserne") and the Röhrensee Barracks ("Röhrenseekaserne"), used by the US Army and the BGS ("Grenzschutzabteilung Süd 3"), were closed. Bayreuth Bayreuth (; ) (Bavarian: Bareid) is a medium-sized city in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the early 21st century, it is the