Richard Wagner of the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, who thought the work "divinely composed", and that of the French newspaper "Le Figaro", which called the music "the dream of a lunatic". Amongst the disillusioned were Wagner's friend and disciple Friedrich Nietzsche, who, having published his eulogistic essay "Richard Wagner in Bayreuth" before the festival as part of his "Untimely Meditations", was bitterly disappointed by what he saw as Wagner's pandering to increasingly exclusivist German nationalism; his breach with Wagner began at this time. The festival firmly established Wagner as an artist of European, and indeed world, importance: attendees included Kaiser Wilhelm I,
George Town Festival core of George Town as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the previous year. Encouraged by the success of that event, a longer, month-long festival was mooted in 2010. Joe Sidek, a well known Malaysian artist, was roped in to manage the festival. In spite of budgetary constraints, the inaugural event was successfully held throughout the month of July in 2010. The art festival has been organised yearly since then, with events being held by utilising the city's heritage architecture as performance venues. The 2014 edition drew in 218,355 visitors, a figure which rose to 250,000 in the following year.