There is much to say in favour of festivals. They frequently act as the great equaliser, as people from all walks of life congregate to celebrate the history, traditions and culture of a place. Not infrequently, I plan a journey to a distant land around a festival time, if only to be transported off the straight-and-narrow, into a world that deviates from the routine of the everyday and invites new ways of being. The talent and passion on display at the festivals listed here, is a reminder that an enthusiastic youthful spirit can be awakened in us all.
Bayreuth, Germany, Musical Chairs—July 24 to August 28
Each year, the Richard Wagner Opera Festival unfolds in Bayreuth. This hugely popular event, a dominant feature of Bayreuth’s cultural calendar, has been a summer fixturean intense rush for tickets is a given. If you do manage to secure one of the highly coveted tickets, the soundtrack that accompanies your stay in Bayreuth, will be a sequence of masterpieces by the 19th century composer. The canon of Wagner’s works that make up the repertoire include, , , and .
