Telluride Bluegrass Solidifies Status As Part of Five-Decade Festival Club

It’s select company, but a few music festivals in the U.S. have contributed to the musical landscape for five decades or more. They have recognizable names and a legacy that reaches beyond their individual fan base contributing to their continued success and lasting imprint on popular culture. 

Among them are heirloom gatherings like Newport’s Jazz Festival (1954) and Folk Festival (1959); Monterey Jazz Festival (1958); Philadelphia Folk Festival (1962); New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (1970); Nashville’s Fan Fair, now CMA Fest (1972); and Colorado’s Telluride Bluegrass Festival (1974).

Often considered niche, the legacy conclaves have maintained their popularity and attendance by catering to specific, loyal communities. At Telluride Bluegrass Festival, which is presented and produced by Planet Bluegrass, they call themselves Festivarians, after a reinterpreted version of C.P. Cavafy’s poem “Ithaka.” The moniker has stuck in ways that nobody expected.

“It’s become part of the lore,” said Craig Ferguson, president of Planet Bluegrass. “Bluegrass is a genre, but I like to tell people that it is a lifestyle.”

Founded in 1974 and occurring annually during the summer solstice, Telluride Bluegrass is a four-day immersive acoustic music experience in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado.

Taking place June 19-22, this year’s lineup includes Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Alison Krauss and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Sam Bush Band, Lake Street Dive, Zach Top, Greensky Bluegrass, Kasey Chambers and Rebirth Brass Band among many others. 

Over the past 50 years, Telluride Bluegrass has developed a loyal following, fostering a tight-knit community that returns year-after-year creating a cultural movement reaching beyond the music and the surrounding box canyon mountains.   

The first festival was cobbled together by a band of Telluride bluegrass players helmed by Fred Shellman,  including Kooster McAllister, John “Picker” Herndon and J.B. Matteotti. They came up with a haphazard plan after attending the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield Kansas. Admission the first year was $2 per person, $5 for a family. 

“We didn’t know what was involved in putting on a festival and neither did the town,” McAllister later wrote. “By not knowing what to do, it actually made it possible, because we didn’t realize things like you’re supposed to have money to pay the bands before you hire them. If we had known, it never would have happened. We just sort of did it the Telluride way.”

A year later the Fall Creek Band, which would later become High Country Concerts before Planet Bluegrass took over in 1989, hired their first national act, New Grass Revival led by maverick fiddle and mandolin innovator Sam Bush, who has played the festival every year since.  

Shellman zeroed in on a particular style and subculture that made Telluride a haven for musicians and music enthusiasts looking for deep cuts and undiscovered gems in an environment of a wholesome hippie throwdown where 40 percent of attendees are camping. 

Since its early years, the event has embraced a diverse group of artists including Bush, Robert Plant, Mumford & Sons, Brandi Carlile, Norah Jones, Janelle Monáe, Greensky Bluegrass, Emmylou Harris and many of the world’s most lauded acoustic instrumentalists.  

“Chris Thile [Punch Brothers, Nickel Creek] will tell you, ‘There are three holidays, Christmas, Thanksgiving and Telluride,’” chuckled Ferguson. “And a lot of other artists feel that way.”

The creative mission has stayed the same, but technology has changed the playing field. 

“In 1990 there were no in-ear monitors so that stage was filled with monitor speakers which made it so challenging in acoustic music. All the instruments had to play to an open mic, now they’re all plugged in,” offered Ferguson. “That’s been the biggest development – you can hear the music.”

Organizers focus their attention on the main stage but the event includes small workshop performances at Elks Park, late-night indoor NightGrass concerts and frequent pick-up jam sessions. 

Curated for a passionate audience, Telluride elevated acoustic music to the mainstream and created an environment where attendees felt an authentic connection to the music creators and pristine location where campgrounds are sold out and vacation rentals are at capacity.

“The Town Park campground holds about 1,200 people and it sells out in minutes,” explained Ferguson. “It’s a culture and a community that’s coming every year, and there’s some new folks there, but there are generations coming and staying year after year. It’s a beautiful thing.”

The audience is capped at 10,000 and routinely sells out in advance. Tickets for 2025 cost $405 for a four-day pass and $130 for Thursday admission with children 12 and under free with a ticketed adult. Ferguson said they forego VIP upgrades and ticketing add-ons.

“It’s kind of cool,” he said. “Everybody, every Festivarian, has the same experience.”

Attendance is kept intentionally below capacity, which reached 16,000 in the early ’90s, to reduce the impact on the environment, cutting down on many logistical headaches faced by larger events and creating a more immersive experience for fans. Sustainability has been a focus of Telluride Bluegrass for decades and central to the “Leave No Trace” ethos of Planet Bluegrass. 

“That pristine valley makes you feel super committed to this sacred responsibility,” said Ferguson. “We feel like we were championing that cause. We’ve been carbon neutral as a festival for 20 years straight and that’s mostly by offsetting travel.”

Planet Bluegrass produces two other music festivals in the state: Rocky Mountain Folks Festival (Aug. 8-10) and RockyGrass (July 25-27), which are both held in Lyons on property known as the Planet Bluegrass Ranch. Planet Bluegrass is in the throes of finishing a documentary about the history of Telluride Bluegrass Festival with multi-camera footage Ferguson shot in 1990.

“It’s gonna be righteous,” he said.