I am really hoping that TBGF will go back to having an all night staff person in the vicinity of the town park ball fields to deal with late night non-sense. The festival prides itself on being family friendly but some of the events last festival crossed the line.
There used to be a festival staffer at the Werner gate all night. You are right, there are jerks everywhere, but situations that threaten to become dangerous need to be dealt with and having a staffer napping in a car out on the bridge that refuses to do anything about obnoxious dangerous people (even when woken up and asked to) is not good enough.
Without staff present and willing to help, I don’t plan to deal with dangerous drunks with kindness, I plan to call the Telluride police. If the festival can’t do anything about it, I will not be back with my kids. I am not asking for the festival to patrol the campgrounds, I AM asking for a reponsible presence 24 hours a day in a location that is accessable and staffed by somebody willing to help. This year will be my 17th festival in 21 years. My kids have been coming for most of that time. This is a great family event but that characteristic needs to be protected.
Wow… I have to say I’m suprised by the bluntness of this post. :eek This will only be my second time at TBGF (the other five years ago) but my wife and I go to the Philadelphia Folk Fest (PFF) every year as volunteers. I am assuming (yes I know its bad to assume 
) that the staff are only volunteers and not paid staff or law enforcement. :festival
I wouldn’t be so hard on the volunteers although they are there to do a job. I think that at any folk/bluegrass festival you have to expect that there will be some obnoxious people or someone who is not “appropriate” at which point I think its best to stay clear and teach your kids how not to act. If its just noise, hey… its a festival and you cant expect to get sleep or have your kids sleep until after 2am or 3am or 4am. :cheers
I guess I’m responding as the poster makes it seem the campground is as bad as the dangerous parts of NYC. Admittedly I think parents have to be fairly progressive at a festival :festivarian and you dont see too many stuck up conservatives at a festival :woohoo (sorry had to find a line to use that pink dancing elephant) but any time you have a bunch of people who are trying to have fun… it will probably be too much fun for someone’s liking. If it gets to the point of being dangerous… I’d say the police have to be called and if a volunteer wont do it… then I’m sure there would be some police officer on hand that a festivarian can bring in.
Ultimately what I’m saying is I’d hate to see the campgrounds become a police state. The question is… what is appropriate and what is not… what is too far?
The TP gate crew is a mix of volunteers and paid supervisors. Unless something changed last year (I was not able to attend), there was one guy who worked (paid) overnight, frozen to the core and trying to stay awake. If you see this person in 2008, bring him/her a large hot coffee and give him/her some company - it’s not an easy job, and I can understand the temptation to take a break if things are looking quiet.