The Bayreuth Festival (German: Bayreuther Festspiele, Bavarian: Bareida Festspui, East Franconian: Baraida Fesdspil) is a music festival held every year in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner are performed. It was Wagner's own idea to start a festival for his operas in Bayreuth in a theatre which he designed himself because he was not satisfied with the way that theatres were usually designed.