Telluride Bluegrass Festival: Full of Surprises

24 Jun Telluride Bluegrass Festival: Full of Surprises

Bela with Brooklyn Rider

It’s easy to get a little frustrated when Bluegrass comes to town. Our mountain hamlet transforms itself overnight and becomes as traffic-packed as a city. Like a river overflowing its banks in spring, the town overflows. Trying to drive Main Street is madness. Trying to find parking borders on insanity.

Yet, despite the mayhem, I look forward to the annual return of Telluride Bluegrass. It is Bluegrass, after all, that first brought me to Telluride, back when I was a student at Colorado College in 1997. Bluegrass was still relatively young then, and I camped with my friends on the Valley Floor and watched the sun climb over Ajax from the steps of the old Baked in Telluride. Looking out over those rose colored peaks, I swore that if I ever found a way to come back to Telluride, I’d make it my home, a home unlike any I’d ever known before, a home that was a part of me and I, in turn, a part of it. Five years later, the promise came true, and I moved to Telluride.

Tarp Squirt Gun Wars

Siri and Quincy Shoff at the Family Tent

For me, what I love best about Telluride Bluegrass is that it reminds me what I love best about my home. Sitting on the tarp, listening to Bela Fleck play his banjo, I take time to look up at the peaks and watch Ingram Falls tumble into the rocks below. I catch up with friends. I float in the San Miguel River and watch the clouds drift overhead. I slow down and appreciate the town I live in.

Running Bear Creek with a friend, we pass scores of Bluegrass hikers who are impressed by the trail. Their reactions, in turn, change the way I see my daily run, a trail I run when I don’t have much time. All at once, I’m looking out at Campbell Peak and noticing the way the light plays in the neon green aspen leaves. I’m listening to the water that descends beside me.  And I’m feeling my feet touch the earth, this place that of all the million places I could live, I get to call home.

The Power Women Elks Set

Bluegrass always surprises me. This year, one of my favorite acts was Bela Fleck’s performance with the Colorado Symphony. To see the Bluegrass stage packed with that many talented musicians carried the festival to a new level. The Elks Park session with Sarah Jarosz, Sara Watkins, Nicki Bluhm, Aoife O’Donovan, and Tift Merritt made me a fan of all these women. And Tim O’Brien’s performance with Darrell Scott upped my appreciation of O’Brien to a whole new level.

Sunset on the tarp

It’s easy to get frustrated with Bluegrass. Some locals just pack up and leave town. Yet, in my mind, skipping Bluegrass isn’t an option. The festival is about the start of summer. It’s about enjoying time outside with friends and family. It’s about listening to amazing musicians do the thing they love best. And it’s about noticing this sacred place that I get to call home. I’m so grateful that Bluegrass reminds me to celebrate Telluride and all of its beauty.