My only objection to free tarper’s is that my self and others have been sleeping out all night and running like hell to set up a spot-then several people sit IN FRONT of you on your tarp doing their FREE TARPIN’thing they do so well. There need to be some manners that go along with the free tarpin people. Otherwise, I’m cool with it.
that is a variation of how to ask your neighbor to behave. When the night falls, people do pack in close and stand, there is a lot of movement. i think it is different during the day when, as a free tarper, I have moved on when people come back to their spot.
A lack of courtesy certainly could muck up the works and is not very festy. Me, if I were frowned at or just not smiled at, I’d move along. So many tarps with space, so many smiley peoples… :wave
and thus the dude abides… :cheers
Colokathy, for the record, we (two of us) ALWAYS sit at the very back of tarpage real-estate. We know that we’re a ‘guest’ of the tarpage, and leave the ‘prime real-estate’ to the owners. We’re just grateful to have been accepted. I’d never be so rude as to hog the ‘sweet spot’.
/r
Kevin
You guys are great. Wish all free tarper’s were as good as you, that’s for sure! Hopefully, through this site and patience from the tarper’s, we can help them see the light! I agree too, once the sun goes down, all is fair game. We pick up all of our stuff including the tarp to give others a fair shot at a great view. Plus, the bonus of lots of warm bodies helping each other out. It’s a blast.
Thinking about it more now, Free Tarpers are part of the natural ecosystem and totally necessary once you open up the field to the whole idea that semi-private tarps can hold your place for an entire day.
Every available inch is covered in tarps, and the “rightful” owners very often do not fully occupy that space by themselves, sometimes not occupying it all for hours and hours. Without Free Tarpin’ rules, every party would be compelled to place a tarp and there wouldn’t be enough space on the field for everyone who wants to be there. PB might need to do away with tarps altogether, or strictly enforce square footage rules, maybe sell a fewer tickets up front or have a much less happy group of campers on the backside since so many would not be able to enjoy the show at all. Some things would be different and not necessarily better.
Free Tarpers: taking up only the space that we need at any given time, enabling the loose tarp policy enjoyed by all, and spreading good cheer. A feature, not a bug. If you pick up a good Free Tarper, let 'em know the love!
This will be our first Telluride Bluegrass festival and we are definitely going to try out free tarping. I hope we meet nice welcoming folks :flower and not territorial nasty people :mad! Maybe having our teenage and tweenage sons with us will buy us some goodwill.
Depending on the size of your group, I would recommend possibly bringing a tarp. If your group is bigger that 5 or so, it’s kinda hard to free tarp the whole festival without constant moving. My group of close friends were free tarpers for our first couple years and have ended up bringing our own tarp for the past 4 or 5 years. When you have a somewhat larger group to keep together it can get a little frustrating having to squeeze into the corner of someone elses tarp or having to play musical camping-chairs for hours on end.
But I guess it also depends on how much of a people person you are as well. If someone can warm up to you and your bunch pretty quick, you should be fine, for the most part.
We are two adults and older kids (10 &14). The two grown ups in our group need R and R badly, we burn the candle at both ends all year long and we have had no vacation at all since last summer. If we have to stay up all night to stay in line every night of the festival in order to enjoy the show, we may as well do something else for our vacation. So, I am hoping for tolerance all around amongst festival goers. We will be respectful, not sit in front of people or on their laps, and look for those giant tarps with lots of space and friendly appearing folks. :sunshine
Well said!
We all have to remember that without “paying” tarpers there wouldn’t be the chance for free tarpin’. Translation - everyone can’t be a free tarper.
I think this very true. I have never been to this festival but I have gone to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival many times over many years. At first there was a free and open policy for reserving your own personal space for the day in front of any stage but it got way out of hand in front of the main stages with the biggest acts. There were literally barricades of lawn chairs so that a whole lot of space was being used up by relatively few people, and that space was unusable even when folks left their chair city for an entire set. Now most of the decent space is SRO, and I dont mean just the very front, I mean anywhere in front of the sound board. The blanket and chair section is way back very far away from the stage. If you sit down at all in the SRO section, even on your butt in the dirt, security will come hassle you. That is difficult if you happen to be in a nice spot for a couple of acts you really want to see, given the absolutely stifling heat and humidity that is typical for that festival. The foundation is also now selling the VIP privilege of standing or sitting up front (seats built into the barricades for the privileged few).
This is a harsh solution to the problem of people taking up a ton of space for a whole day. It sounds to me like Telluride has a kinder, gentler system. I am looking forward to seeing how it goes for us 4 people, we could easily split into two groups of two on different tarps as well.
Hubby and I wont be standing on line all night for a number for the tarp run. We have to get some rest and relaxation on this vacation. We are both ready to crack from stress and obligations!!! :woohoo :horsey :horsey :horsey :horsey :horsey :horsey :woohoo :woohoo
Hey! Sweetmusic,
Where are you folks camping?
Auntie Hope :festivarian2 :green
Embarrassing to admit to all of you happy campers but we are staying in a condo! The idea of schlepping everything we would need to camp from Philly to Colorado makes me tired just thinking about it. Add my attachment to having a bathroom that I dont need to walk outside to get to at 4am and my aching back that does not take well to sleeping on the ground and you can call me Princess Jen or your highness if you are so inclined. 
The camping sounds like a great time, though, especially the Town Park camping. We are staying extremely close to the festival in Telluride, so we can hopefully see a whole lot of the music.
For everyone who has never been, you do not need to camp out to get your tarp into the festival. I have had very decent tarp spots in the past by simply walking in when the gates open up for every body. You’re probably not going to get a super great spot but you don’t completely have to resort to free tarpin if you don’t do the tarp run.
But then again, free tarpin is a great way to make new friends.