Below is a very short video clip of Peter Rowan and Crucial Country (with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and Edgar Meyer). Peter Rowan is my favorite returning recurring performer at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and it’s great to see him organize a “super group” of sorts. The intro on Land of the Navajo gives this one away every time.
You can see in the photo below that Elks Park in the center of the Town of Telluride was packed pretty tightly to see the Punch Brothers outside on a sunny day. The Elks Park venue has traditionally been a much smaller scaled venue which is offered as a free series of events (most of which are very high quality) to those who wish to attend. In addition to actual musical performances, there are also often: interviews/panels, workshops, competitions, etc.
Just saw Peter Rowan and Crucial Country (with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and I believe Edgar Meyer) this afternoon … who were excellent — a definite super group of sorts. I will post some short video clips samples soon.
Got to see the tail end of the Del McCoury Band, the full set for Alison Krauss & Union Station with Jerry Douglas, and a couple songs by the Tim O’Brien Band before I left for the evening. It looks like the Bluegrass Festival is actually fairly well attended in terms of there being a decent crowd inside the venue. The weather has so far been excellent and should continue to be through the remainder of the weekend.
Over the course of the day, it’s interesting to see the lighting change the mountainous landscape in the background.
For $100 … which is about $85 less than face value of the regular price of $185 or $55 less than the early bird rate of $155. A friend was looking to unload some that were not being used and what not … definitely wasn’t looking to take advantage, but sometimes things work out this way.
Got to see Keller & the Keels (as in Keller Willams) — directly below, but decided to leave to come back later for Alison Krauss & Union Station and maybe a bit of Tim O’Brien. Not going to make a big night out of it, since I really had my sights set on Friday (Peter Rowan & Leftover Salmon) and Saturday nights.
YMSB is playing tonight up at the conference center in the Telluride Mountain Village. They have kind of made a tradition of playing up there on the Wednesday night before the Telluride Bluegrass Festival starts for a number of years now. I want to say about 8 years. I saw them last year up in the village and had a great time. This year, I might go see Joint Point who is playing at the Fly Me To The Moon Saloon in town; however, my cousin is visiting from AZ on route to Glenwood Springs, so I don’t think he’s up for going there.
Anyhow, as you can see below, the final touches are all in place (or at least should be). The photo below was taken under the tent where they physically check your wristbands to gain entry into the actual music venue. They do a visual check in between the Box Office and the bridge which crosses the San Miguel River leading into Telluride Town Park. You can see the KOTO (local community radio station) beer booth which is located on the basketball court in the background to the right.
Entrance to TBF
The bluegrass festival box office has been setup for some time now, typically one of the first structures to be plopped down — situated right next to the post office. This is where you go to either purchase a ticket, pick up your ticket at will call, or exchange your ticket for a wristband. You can also pick up an official Telluride Bluegrass Festival program which provides a schedule, details about the musicians who will be performing, as well as other useful information about the festival.
There is an official public bulletin board just outside the box office (hidden behind the cars below) which allows for people to post notices if they have extra tickets to see or are seeking tickets. So far, I’ve seen a message for a $155 four day pass and another for someone seeking a Telluride Town Park camping pass. Based on other sources of information, my suspicion is that the festival will not sell out and there will be extras available for purchase at either early bird rates ($155) or lower on the street come Thursday morning.
You can see that Ajax — the pointy mountain in the background — received a dusting of snow overnight. This has been happening for the past 2 or 3 nights with temps dipping down to below freezing, especially at higher elevations.
Those festivarians who are camping early are definitely getting the brunt of the weather. The forecast for the festival calls for progressively nicer weather … with Saturday and Sunday both being sunny and in the mid 70′s.
I took a walk through the Telluride Town Park campground this afternoon checking out all the festivarians who have arrived for the Telluride Bluegrass Festival which officialy starts this coming Thursday and runs through Sunday. It is quite a ritual for some folks to come out here early and setup camp … often in the exact same locations year after year. Some setups are quite elaborate with couches and of course ornimentations. Below is a shot taken from the Telluride Town Park campground.
The photograph directly above is of the construction of the soundboard island which is in the middle of the venue. You can also see the frame of the speaker tower which is colored yellow to the right of the stage.
Check back for Telluride Bluegrass updates.
Here’s a shot of the beaver ponds just to the Ophir Pass side of “east ophir” taken a few days ago. You can see East Ophir in the background.
There is actually a National Forest Service remediation site very near this area. There is a relatively large pile of mine tailings located sufficiently close to the South Fork river. So, they are going to condense the tailings material into a large pile and “ecapsulate” the pile with material and vegetation … while also engineering proper drainage.
The Victorian Inn is located in the Town of Telluride and is about a block and a half away from the Gondola and Lift 8.
The Aspen Street Inn Bed & Breakfast is located in the Town of Telluride about a block away from the Gondola and lift 8. It was formerly known as the San Sophia Bed & Breakfast.
