Not sure how many in total they had, but they were all snatched up in less than two hours.
In a town of 2000, you would think they would put aside more than 450.
They sure ask a lot of us locals, considering 75% of the residents are gonna be locked out.
Wow, how long do you think Telluride will continue to let this happen?
Oh, as long as I dish out 3k for a few days stay, just to catch the TBF love train, I spouse… :flower :cheers
That decision might be above both our pay grades’.
I imagine the powers at be are mulling this new debacle.
For years I have heard alot of bad juju about PBG and how they should be more generous. It was almost insulting to me as a patron of Telluride and of this Fest.
It is folks like PBG that make your valley thrive. Be greatful and have better timing next time. Always more. Is there ever enough for some folk. I think not.
Didn’t intend inflame, rather just comment on the recent and very broad trend of high demand for the TBF over the past couple of years.
I must’ve been near the very end … since I was there around 10:40. One of the TMC’s owners said they opened up early at 9am when they saw people waiting early in the morning … didn’t want to see them wait in the cold. I had actually picked up a regular rate ticket at the end of Dec … didn’t want to take a chance, nor wait in the cold. Already have a few people asking for that one (for face) & I’ll hold on to the slightly discounted local’s ticket.
I know it won’t help for those who don’t have, but any local could’ve bought the tix earlier when they went on sale in the general pool. The only contention I have (which isn’t very big) is to suggest simply putting the locals’ block on sale first … this way, once they’re gone they’re gone, and locals without locals’ tickets will know what they have to do vs. being dependent upon a somewhat misguided notion that they’ll be “looked after” on the ticket front.
Yeah right!
I was a T-ride local for 4 years. A few of the locals always complained, but I can assure you 90% of us dug the festival. True, it was a pain in the ass if music or crowds wasn’t your thing , but those few people just got outta town for a few days. Besides, those of us who didn’t go to the festival or owned a business were psyched because for 4 days there were more than the usual 12 pretty girls in town to look at…I tell you the truth!
[quote author=FaceOnMars link=topic=13468.msg76974#msg76974 date=1326149682]
Didn’t intend inflame, rather just comment(Quote)
I know, it’s that stupid moon. But I must say, I do feel like a little sister defending her big brother. I think this fest is just so special and Telluride makes it to the poewr of 10. When I hear the locals talk bad about Ferg or the Planet, as a long time supporter I am takin it personal.
This ticket thing has got everyones attention this year and the Planet is listening and growing every day. That’s why we luv em.
If such a debate were to take place I’d imagine that the “powers that be” would decide to keep the festival.
I used to live in a town about the same size as Telluride that had an annual Harley Rally. 8k-10k bikers would show up at our quite little mountain town, tripling the population. Lots of people complained about it, but even those that raised a stink knew that nothing else brought that much money into our little community. My friends that worked at local bars and restaurants would go home with 4x (or more) in tips as they would any other night, and that doesn’t count all the merchandise that gets purchased that weekend. One day my boss’s 10 year old (our there abouts) son opened a lemonade stand and make $300+ in an afternoon. When it came down to it, the people who didn’t like the crowds, and who didn’t have to work, would leave town for the weekend.
And personally, I’d rather have 10k (generally) well behaved hippies in my town than 10k bikers.
This is certainly something we’ll consider for next year.
FYI… On the afternoon that tickets went onsale in December, we had our first meetings about what to do if tickets sell out earlier than April (the previous record set in 2011). The first thing we discussed was moving up locals tickets, so they’d be available before the general pool of 4-day passes sold-out. January 9 was the earliest we could do it to give everyone fair warning and avoid conflicts with holiday schedules. Backed by 38 years of historical ticket sales data, we thought there was no way 4-day passes could sell-out before then… :rolleyes
Thanks Brian … just a thought, there’s always many ways to look at these things … and probably many considerations which aren’t always apparent. I knew that you had originally planned on making locals’ tickets available in March, but it was moved up to January 9 … which was a probably a good thing. It all caught me by surprise too.
There was another local in line who I frequently see at other shows around the country … where he always seems to wait to get tix until the very last second in the lots (but always manages to get in), yet even he was standing in line for a ticket in Jan. I thought it was kinda funny, but also telling about knowing when to be on the ball with all of this … although some locals will probably be taken by surprise or just not up to or able to commit the $$ at the moment. The whole really high demand thing hasn’t been part of the equation for a while … so it’s going to throw those who aren’t paying attention. Guess people will just have to learn and adapt for the next go around … although there’s still single days to be released.
Yes. And my wife, two kids and I will be adding our 3 or 4k to the local economy, since we also stay on after the fest for a couple days, patronize the local establishments, and shop a bit. Without the festival, we’d have dropped our 12-15k over the last few years somewhere else.
I was hanging out here in Cleveland with a fellow festivarian last weekend, and he has an interesting take on the sudden explosion of popularity of TBF. He can expound on it, I’m sure, since I know he’ll read this, but the short version is: this, too, shall pass.
:wave :thumbsup Yes indeed :medal
click on the link for a picture, but story follows (was wrong, 11:45am vs. 10:45)
http://www.telluridenews.com/articles/2012/01/10/news/doc4f0b9f0d9182b696659389.txt
Telluride Bluegrass Festival locals passes sell out in less than three hours
By Kathrine Warren
Staff Reporter
Published: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 6:08 AM CST
At 5:30 a.m. on Monday, Darcie and Ginny Gordon set up two camp chairs in front of the Telluride Music Company. It was a chilly 15 degrees outside, but Darcie was determined to secure four-day passes to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival this summer.
“It was very cold, and we were kind of lonely,” Ginny said later in the day with a laugh. Darcie held down the fort while Ginny went back home to make breakfast. Soon enough they were joined by a few more people and by 9 a.m. a low-key line of 20 to 30 people was queued up in the bitter cold in front of the store.
Within a few hours, all of the 450 locals four-day passes that were available at the music store were snapped up. And with that, four-day passes to the festival are officially gone, signifying a record-breaking sellout for the summertime music festival. (Single-day tickets will be available later in the spring).
Dave and Karen Lamb, owners of the Telluride Music Company, said they opened the store an hour early at 9 a.m. because it was so cold outside. They sold their last ticket by 11:45 a.m. Tickets were priced at $180 (a $15 discount) and locals had to show proof of their 81435 residency. Locals were limited to two tickets each.
Planet Bluegrass had bumped the locals sale to January from March this year in response to the searing pace of pass sales. All other four-day passes were sold out by last week.
“It’s not totally surprising, given that these are the only four-day passes left in the world,” said Planet Bluegrass’ Director of Communications Brian Eyster of Telluride’s sale.
It was another chapter in what has shaped up to be a year of historic ticket sales for the Bluegrass Festival. Discounted holiday tickets, which usually sell out in mid-January, sold out in two hours last month. The bluegrass.com webserver received more than four times more online users than its busiest day ever. And Planet Bluegrass had 50 percent more entries in its Town Park camping lottery than last year.
Last year four-day passes were sold out by the end of March, and the folks at Planet Bluegrass have been working since to adjust to the unprecedented ticket demands.
Locals passes have historically been released in March while merchant passes were up for grabs in early April. This year, Planet Bluegrass did away with the merchant pass program and made 250 more passes available for sale on Monday at the music company.
Karen Lamb said in past years they used to return leftover locals passes to the festival because they rarely sold out.
She said everyone on Monday was very grateful to be able to buy a pass. As the line died down, the last person in line got the last ticket.
“It wasn’t like we had a huge line of people that we had to say ‘go away,’” Lamb said. “That would have been hard.”
Eyster said Planet Bluegrass is not pushing the festival to new audiences this year and the unparalleled sell-out is due to a new “word of mouth frenzy about the festival.
“We’re on all these new radars that we’ve never been on before,” Eyster said.
Festival organizers would rather not sell out so early because festivarians and Telluride locals are being shut out of tickets since they’re accustomed to buying passes in May or June, he said.
Eyster said it’s been heartbreaking fielding calls from longtime festival patrons who did not get passes in time.
There’s still one more chance for people to get into Town Park during the summer solstice weekend in June, and that’s when single-day tickets are released.
Eyster said they will go on sale as soon as the festival confirms a daily schedule for the main headliners. Tickets will be $65 per day and sold online at bluegrass.com. (The Daily Planet will let readers know when those tickets are about to go on sale.)
Gordon said the new pace of ticket sales for the festival is concerning.
“I don’t know what the festival is going to do,” she said. “Telluride locals are the heart and soul of the festival. Planet Bluegrass needs to come up with a plan to allow a longer amount of time and more tickets for locals.”
The 2012 Telluride Bluegrass Festival is scheduled for June 21-24.
I was hanging out here in Cleveland with a fellow festivarian last weekend, and he has an interesting take on the sudden explosion of popularity of TBF. He can expound on it, I’m sure, since I know he’ll read this, but the short version is: this, too, shall pass.
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I really wonder if that, too, shall pass. The fest has such a great reputation that it’s becoming a “bucket list” item for music fans all over the nation. And once you’ve attended, you KNOW you’re coming back.
If this was a “normal” music festival with a sell-out problem, it would be instantly solved with a massive price increase. Marketing 101 points to price elasticity as the answer. Double the price and you’ll lose half your customers, still make the same amount of money, but now with more availability for growth.
This is NOT a “normal” fest, thank goodness, and PB does a great job of keeping the prices down. But I think that, with all the increased popularity, one day I’ll be without a ticket and not happy. That’s a ledge we all hope to avoid, but looking at the quick sell-out and overabundance of “I’m coming, but still need tickets” listings on this forum, I’m afraid it’s something we might all be challenged with someday soon.
I hope your friend in Cleveland can talk me down from that ledge.
Boo hoo, boo hoo. You all know it is called the “telluride bluegrass festival” so how dare all of us unworthy outsiders want to come spend our hard earned money at their festival. I bet Durango, Cortez, Montrose or any other town in the area wouldn’t mind taking our cash. What a bunch of entitled jerks you locals are. There was a post before about a volunteer being bitten. They failed to mention the incident at the road block at the edge of town where a prominent citizen (her words) tried running down a police officer because she didn’t want to show her pass. Maybe they should move the fest so we don’t have to put up with you locals.
I hope your friend in Cleveland can talk me down from that ledge.
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My theory, which I admit was developed over the course of several IPA’s and Harpoon Winter Warmers, may be more wishful thinking than something based on emperical evidence or rigorous market research, but since you asked…
The dramatic increase in demand for TBF tickets is a direct result of social media sites and online message boards that promote bluegrass and other types of music/bands, as well as festivals (see JamBase, Phantasy Tour, etc.). So, people that have been attending many of the other larger festivals around the country are now learning about TBF. At the same time, bands like the Stringdusters, Greensky, Trampled, YMSB are growing in popularity, specifically with the younger crowd that attends all of these other fests, like All Good, Waka, Bonnaroo and even EFF and the annual Phish fest. OK, so that’s not earth-shattering news.
But here’s where my “this too shall pass” may come into play. These other fests feature other “elements” that are not a part of TBF, or are at least not present in such large amounts. TBF doesn’t offer the late night or all night electronic dance party that a lot of these other festivals now include. Sure, we have Nightgrass, but it’s not DJ’s and light shows and kids in fairy wings and glitter and glowsticks and all that comes with that scene. I think a lot of the folks that enjoy that scene will come to TBF once, and then return to the other fests that cater more to their crowd.
Along those same lines, I think some folks will come to TBF not expecting the number of familes and kids that attend. I can see this being a turn-off to the crowd that looks at the festival as just a 4 day party. Do a bunch of 20-somethings really want to hang out around my 4 year old son and his 9 year old brother? Maybe the Kelty’s are enough to drive them away!
Like I said, maybe this is just wishful thinking. Maybe all of these new folks will fall in love with the valley, the town and the festival, just like I did at the 24th TBF. Maybe they’ll come back every year. But then again, maybe TBF is just the “cool” thing to do for some of them and they’ll experience it once and be done.
^^^^^ = “spunion factor”
I think your general assessment is well on the mark, at least with respect to a “new component” to the equation regarding social networking and how we’re simply more interconnected on this front. As to how much this element factors into the equation is anyone’s guess.
By the same token and with some overlap, the Phish shows 1.5 years ago was probably another steriod shot of sorts.
Perhaps the TBF will resonate and change some of the more negative aspects of those who are just in it to “rage” in such ways 24/7 & not the reverse where such behavior becomes accepted as the norm.
However, I don’t think the latter is going to happen so long as the lineups aren’t radically adjusted to cater to such a new “element”. Take it from someone who likes their face stolen right off their head, only RRE late night last summer did the trick on this front. This is not to say the festival was not magical and stacked with the best of the best, it’s just not 100% on target with what this other element might be seeking if one had to generalize.
“Bummer” for every local that doesn’t get a ticket and wanted one. pERHAPS THEY’LL BE ABLE TO VOLUNTEER, damb caps lock. Hopefully, they will enjoy Elk’s park more. Perhaps they’ll attend more late night shows. Maybe they will have more conversations with festevarians from ___________ . My wife and I missed our opportunity to pick up tickets.
In more than twenty years of TBF. I’ve missed one against my will. I spent time with my kids at the playground, turns out they like that spot better than in the fest. We also listened to music in Elk’s park, and caught acts we/ I would certainly have missed. Perhaps The Telluride Bluegrass Festival is outgrowing Telluride, I am quite sure PG has considered this already. Those of us who have traveled for music know there’s no better venue, though have heard Byron Bay isn’t bad. Certainly there is sufficient talent in Telluride to produce another festival on the same weekend, then again so could PG.
From my extensive breadth of perspective you make the most out of every situation, or not. Sometimes the most is sitting emptying one’s mind. Having walked through the town campground prior to festival, and throughout, it is the best use of that facility all year, every year. Sure Blues and Brews is a’ight, TBF is better in the campground. You that make it what it is range from employee to volunteer through participant. The biggest deal about TBF is more participants than tourists, i.e. ticket holders, patrons, or any other entitlement, than any other event I’ve been to, accept perhaps The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, yet there the participants are far more diluted by the tourists. The “festevarians” was a term among us long before it was in the schedule/ program, probably before Shawn Colvin wore dreads. Reading the program last year it came to my attention that there was a coolest hippie development going on. Festevarian = ) Genuine, beyond labels, SERVING, willing to be a problem for a larger solution, not correct, right, and certainly not PC, except by chance. I really like the idea of Local’s Tickets going on sale first, seems implemented for next year.
I mentioned Pat, Pat Morris, passing away last Saturday night under tragic circumstances. There was another Topic established for him by Hope Lin. I decided to delete or edit previous info/ thoughts for him from this topic. I apologize for any confusion. Now listening to Jerry and the band tear it up from GD Live, Goin Down the Road Feeling Bad.
“Speaking of festevarians, Pat passed away last night, if you’ve been up front allot at TBF you’ve seen Pat dancing.”
This is, sincerely, the saddest news. Pat was a beloved member of the Festivarian Nation. 
Auntie Hope :spill