The Wagner Festival in Bayreuth is one of the most significant music forums in the world. In Germany they are rightfully proud of it as a unique achievement of German musical culture, which has given rise to numerous similar opera festivals - in Salzburg (Austria), Aix-en-Provence (France) and some others. What sets it apart from the general range of festivals of this kind is that it was created by the will of the outstanding German composer Richard Wagner and is dedicated to his work. This festival has a rich history, closely connected with the history of Germany at the end of the 19th – 20th centuries and the beginning of our century, reflecting all its vicissitudes during this period. Another unique feature of it was that during the first hundred plus years of its existence it was a family enterprise of the Wagner family - the direct descendants of the composer, who tried to the best of their ability to preserve the legacy they had inherited and maintain it in the form in which it should in their opinion to serve the next generations.