My TBF 2024 heroes - many thanks!

Festivarian Events Telluride Bluegrass Festival
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This “going back to work” thing just sucks. Most of my clients were nice enough to leave me alone for 12 days, but now I gotta try to remember how to do what they pay me for.

More importantly, there are so many people I’d like to thank for helping make my 23rd Town Park experience so wonderful. I can’t thank EVERYONE, and being pretty brain-dead from the pack-up and drive home Monday, I’m sure I’ll forget many who deserve the deepest thanks. But I gotta at least try…

My T-Ride heroes include DukTape Ron, Hooch & Sugar, Hulaganz Paul, Mr. DJ Clayton, camp hostess Jessica, Chase & his magnificent wardrobe, camp neighbors Jenny & Maggie, Lindsey (thx for the bracelet), Telluride Tom, all the Pre-fest party coordinators (like Blood Mary Monday’s Adrian and Jared), the Arizona pickers on the beach, the mobile ice vendors, ALL of my Camp Mustache friends, all the Goddesses who donned a mustache, all the fest volunteers, the great people at the Planet, all my NEW friends and everyone who smiled as we walked back and forth to the music.

But I save my biggest thanks for Lucas. What he did for all us TP Festivarians is incredible. Maybe some of you don’t know how he affected your TP time, but he was working on this fest for many, many months. Once in TP, he was there to help friends and newbies alike. And all that work made our time so much better.

Again I’m sorry if I skipped mentioning you, but this work-fog will eventually clear and I’ll try to thank you next year in person.

So now it’s your time. Who is on your thank-you list?

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Pretty much nailed my list. I’d add the coffee team from Duk Tape’s kitchen worked hard and provided tons of folks with great coffee and all the fixens, plus they fed breakfast to half of TP every day! Also have to be thankful that Camp Lampshadey Grove was surrounded on all sides by some really wonderful people.

Last I have to give the biggest THANKS to our Camp Mates in Lampshadey! Not only did it turn out to be a wonderful mix of awesome people, who got along fantastically, but there was never an issue with anything even during the pouring rains. Whenever something needed to be done, no one asked or passed it by, they jumped into action and we all took care of each other! But, this year since we flew in, we had to rely on our campmates for so much more than camaraderie, they provided all the infrastructure, even hauled a few totes of our things just so we could have the things we needed. We couldn’t have festivated as hard as we did without our teams help, so they get the biggest thanks!

Also thanks to all of you that we crossed paths with during the Lampshade parade. Thanks for the high fives, the smiles, and thanks for being patient with us as we interrupt the night with some silliness! Don’t forget to join us next year, maybe someday on Saturday all of TP will parade through the crowd with Lampshade Hats!

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OH man, this is bringing back all the feels of Monday morning all over again. :sob:

The primary thing that keeps me coming back to Town Park is the absolute pure sense of community that is fostered there. I love that I can contribute something to my chosen family and learned how to do it from the best.

You, @completejohn have been crucial to this community for so long now, and I’ve garnered a lot of the desire to help from your example and kindness. There are too many pillars of this community to list but @Debbiefromtucson also worked tirelessly for far longer than I have to organize all of this craziness and she deserves huge props as well. Paul Smith, Rob Dutton, Tom Poley, Paul Campbell, ToddG, Ron Reich, Bevin (missed you this year, buddy), Hooch & Sugar, Hippie, the Greenes, Gail/Greg, TTom Lesley, the wackadoodles over at CatFactCorner and a billion other people have all put in tons and tons of behind the scenes blood sweat and tears for many many moons to build what we enjoy every year.

Massive props to all of the event holders as well. The amount of planning and effort that goes into a Loaded Potato Bar, or a Crawfishboil, organizing a beer share @ftb0003, hosting Bloodies @StarrCruiser @Age6784, a BBQ @alexbarbosa42, bringing a whole heap of ramen (we have to remember the one handed peeling trick for next year) from all of the Hulaganz, Grilled Cheeses from DukTape (Chef/Erin/Annie/Ed/KMurf), etc, Wings (Bo, Jess, Nate, Sam, Stokley, Blair, etc), the Power Hour (@CBoDenver and Tribue Crew), Tropical Tuesday @loosejello @jeff and the rest of Crossroads, Arts/crafts, kickball, TelluPride, Waffles, Tots, Slow Jam Picks, Rumballs, Hosted Happy Hours, Yucca, Chard in the Yard, etc is pretty crazy to think about. Chef provided a lot of infrastructure for these events which I know made our lives wildly easier during tots - thank you so much for that! Josh for all of the photos!

The Hard To Recycle station has been an ongoing resounding success. The biggest props go out to Jen and Cathy for spearheading that. I can’t wait to see the full report of what we were able to divert from landfills this year.

Our Camp Hosts @dezreen, Jessica, Fawnda, and team do a delightful job and work their tails off to make our experience as easy going as possible. Likewise, the folks in the Parks & Rec Office (Augusta, Linda, and Stephanie) office graciously host us Festivarians every year and put up with our ABGAT shenanigans. Special thanks to good ole Fred as well - your wife is awesome too!

I also need to recognize the folks in the Open Space Commission. They control the destiny of Zone 1 and took time out of their days to walk through the campground with us to help us better understand how we can help continue to be better stewards of the land. We look forward to continuing the dialogue for years to come!

And we can’t forget the very hardworking people at Planet Bluegrass who simply make this happen. Zach, Kyra, Geoff, and Grace (and the rest of the crew of course) are absolute rockstars and we wouldn’t be here without them.

I missed a ton of folks but this is getting kinda long.

In short, it takes a village and boy howdy, what a mighty fine village we have.

Love you all!

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We are so darn lucky! So grateful to have y’all as part of my festifamily.

I’m choosing today to be grateful to John for fighting for a new tarp number system love those extra hours of sleep. I am grateful to all of the musicians novice and professionals who graced our town park.
I am grateful to my Denver neighbors and Michael who helped me up our mobile sound game! I am grateful to Jen and Stacie for creating and donating the pride brunch to help spread more love.

I am grateful to the random dude who saw me come out of the stall and stop brushing his teeth so I could wash my hands. The millions of little acts of kindness show, how great our community is and what the world could truly be like.

I am grateful for our wiz Lucas. From organizing ABGAT campsites. Building relationships with the town, and always lending a hand!

What we have every June is just so special. I love you all.

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100% agree. Some of the kindest, funniest and warm hearted people reside at TP and it’s what makes this such an uplifting experience . I love you all. Thank you for making a long trip totally worth it. Coming to Telluride fills my cup every time.

See you next year :blue_heart::green_heart:

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Lucas you are the best. :heart:

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Thanks Complete John. Without you I would never have made it to my first one. Was wonderful to see you again

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Well said Lucas! Thank you for all you do and huge thanks to all the folks you mentioned!
Cuz he’s the WIZ and nobody beats him NOBODY!
N8

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I am so honored and humbled to be selected as mayor of this community so many years ago. It has been a life changing event and fills my heart with love for all of you. The way this community pulls together is truly amazing and I can only wish the rest of the world was just like ours. Peace and happiness to all of my festivarian family. Love and hugs.
Telluride Tom

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I forgot to mention our Camp Momma Denise. She is there for any issue, and only wants to help people be happy. She raised money and bought the camp host Fred a ticket to the festival. Fred was a tough cookie that first year he was summer long camp host, but even that year Denise brought him a nice big bottle of Whiskey and said sorry it’s so crazy during Bluegrass. Next year she invited Fred for Lampshades Fish Fry (yes it will return next year), and this year she raised funds and bought Fred a ticket, it was his first time inside the festival grounds and he was so excited! He’ll be one of us next year! Denise is a magical person who only passes on kindness, O hope you all got to experience her magic this year!

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All of that AND she makes some of the best pickled and fermented goodies ever! <3 you Denise!!

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Every year I buy one extra ticket to the festival. Every year, I let people who have never been to this festival enter to win the ticket by just simply putting their names on the list.

I do this act because of THIS community. Since that first time I ever set foot on those grounds. I found something that I felt my lacking in my daily life. That community love that naturally flows more fluid than the creek itself. My soul craves that flowing love within a community. My grandmother took me in during the summers and I spent that time within the family culdesac. Knowing if you went to any house along the road they would help you if you needed it and feed you first. (Thank Lampshade for helping Joe and feeding him).

So far, the extra ticket has went to a person who needed something in their lives that was lacking and this community has helped give it to them. Every year I come back because this community provides me with love as warm as the Summer Solstice Sun and as flowing as the creek.

So thank you all for being you.

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That’s beautiful. True Festivarian spirit