Just in: Bayreuth Festival budget is cut by $1 million

The Society for the Promotion of the Bayreuth Festival has announced it will contribute one million Euros less to the 2024 event. Its chairman Georg Freiherr von Waldenfels said there were ‘internal reasons’ for the decision. He said the reduction amounts to one-tird of the society’s annual contribution and future funding will be maintained at this lower level.

There has been no response from Katharina Wagner.

Other stakeholders are conferring.

More here.

UPDATE: In comments to the DPA, the society appeared to row back: According to dpa information, the Friends of Bayreuth told the other shareholders in a meeting of the Board of Directors to pay about one million euros less from 2024 on. The chairman of the Friends of Bayreuth and the Board of Directors, Georg Freiherr von Waldenfels, said on request that it was an internal meeting, the contents of which he does not comment. “That the Society of Friends of Bayreuth continues to be a reliable partner of the Bayreuth Festival GmbH and has fulfilled all financial obligations, which have been increasing for years, as have the other shareholders of the Festival.” The financial situation of the Friends “remains stable,” von Waldenfels said. “Any speculation about this is out of the air.”