The Bayreuth Festival, the prestigious annual event dedicated to the music of Richard Wagner, is to go online, organisers said on Tuesday — but you will have to pay and tickets are limited.

And there will only be one performance available on the internet, that of "Die Meistersinger of Nuernberg" (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg), and the 10 000 tickets available cost €49, spokesperson Alexander Busche said.

Aficionados of the annual 100-year-old festival in southern Germany sometimes have to wait up to 10 years to get a ticket for the real thing, forking out up to €208 for the privilege. There are just 2000 seats inside the theatre.

This year's event, the last with Richard Wagner's grandson Wolfgang as director after 57 years, will also have one other novelty: a large screen outside with space for 15 000 people to watch — and for free.

AFP