[...] My reasons for choosing Bayreuth as the site for my enterprise may be deduced readily enough, without further explanation from me, from the conditions on which my choice was to be based. I did not want a capital city with a permanent theatre, nor a watering-place which, in summer particularly, would furnish an utterly unsuitable public; it had to be not far from the heart of Germany and a Bavarian town, since I intend to make it my permanent home and I feel it only suitable that this should be in Bavaria while I continue to enjoy the beneficence of the King of Bavaria. But even apart from this, this pleasant place and its surroundings have greatly attracted me from the first, and the fact that I am still quite a stranger to its inhabitants should not frighten me. [...]
I take it for granted that the town of Bayreuth is not to be taxed in any way to provide the sinews of my enterprise. Vigorous partisans of my project are active in raising the necessary funds, and their success already empowers me to make arrangements for the purchase of the site of my provisional theatre (although the building of it must in any case be put off till next March, as the present time of year is unsuitable for the work). For this business I expect to come to Bayreuth myself at the end of this month at latest. [...] For the rest, I will now touch on the chief objection to be made against my choice of Bayreuth from the standpoint of the patrons of my enterprise, namely the doubt as to whether sufficient accommodation for visitors is to be had there. The problem will be to secure good lodging for a personnel of some two hundred artistes, etc., for several months and for some two thousand visitors for the month of performances, and to protect them from exorbitant charges. As I have nothing to say on these points of my own knowledge, I put them before you for your kind consideration, and should be very glad to be able to reassure my patrons upon them through you. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 648