Not sold out?? WTF?

Festivarian Events Telluride Bluegrass Festival
1

I grabbed four 4-day passes at about 9:00:15 on Thursday, and the site crashed shortly thereafter. I was curious as to why I’d never gotten a confirmation email from Planet Bluegrass (I did confirm that my card got charged, so I wasn’t worried), so I just now visited the store, and see that it’s not ever sold out yet!

What gives? Has the lack of a true headliner (like John Fogarty or Steve Winwood as recent as 3-4 years ago) the last two years stifled the interest, or what?

I’d love to know what the buzz is amongst those “in the know”.

Thanks, and merry merry ho ho ho to you all!!

2

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=AwrBTzupdktYQbAAfq1XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE0aW04am9xBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjI3ODJfMQRzZWMDcGl2cw--?p=same+old+setlist+telluride&fr=tightropetb&fr2=piv-web#id=12&vid=a793270bbaff4b5f952a55681d2895e6&action=view

And in case you think this demonstrates bad attitude, I purchased 3 4-days on Thursday. Been 20+ times since 91 (first year of Flecktones I think).

Condovaaal!

p.s. can we have Jeff Austin back yet.

3

I am shocked too !! In the past years 4-Day Passes would be gone by now but their still available !! I’m not going this year . I’ve been 10 years in a row . I now live in Capitola . Since I live closer to NW String Summit I would love to check that out . More Bluegrass . ANYONE BEEN??

4

I too was on the keyboard at 9 am … placed my order …and waited …and waited … and was presented with another ‘place order’ screen … then a ‘site down for maintenance for a few hours’ notice from Magento … 10 minutes later was able to log in and saw that my initial order was accepted/processed.

As for tickets still being available … I attribute it to one of two things …1) no exaggerated hype about mumford and sons (yeah … they’re ok … but they ain’t ‘all that’ by any stretch); and 2) the bunch of liberal Hillary worshipers blinded by denial and ticket-purchasing had temporarily slipped their minds.

Yeah … I know … I probably should not have said that. heh.

/r
Kevin

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This is posted on the Web site
Greetings Festivarians!
Ferg here from Planet Bluegrass.
Many of you know that we (again) had a meltdown yesterday with our online cart selling Telluride Bluegrass tickets. At about 9:05am, 90 servers crashed and the site was down for a few minutes while our tech wizards worked on the problems. We had an entire team monitoring the servers this year, spent more than ever optimizing code, load testing and all sorts of other stuff I can’t explain or understand…
See More"

Link is above right on this page top of tab Planet Bluegrass

6

I went through the same problems as others, so was definitely surprised to see that tickets are still available, but I think you are all correct…no big names the past couple of years. They need to mix it up some more and bring in some big name acts again. That said, I got my tickets…

rossstevens, I skipped TBG last year and did NWSS for the first time. It was very different in a lot of ways, but its nice to mix it up. And of course, the music was great.

location/scenery. TBG - big blue sky in a box canyon at the edge of town. NWSS - Trees, trees in a campground with nothing but more trees in walking distance
Temps. TBG - Hi’s and Lo’s. NWSS - fairly constant.
Camping/Lodging. TBG - Camping/condos/hotels. NWSS - everybody camps (at least almost everybody)
Stages. TBG 1.5 stages (you know what I mean). NWSS - multiple stages
Beer. TBG New Belgium - fair amount of variety. NWSS - Nikasi, IPA, IPA, IPA, IPA, and one other choice (and this coming from somebody who loves IPAs)
Crowd - trends younger at NWSS. TBG is bigger…its hard to tell actually numbers, but I’m guessing that TBG has at least twice as many people, maybe 2.5x

If you are flying from out of town, which I have to do in both cases, NWSS is a lot easier to get to.

Of course, the music is the most important part and I thought the line at NWSS was awesome last year. I don’t want to sound like a heretic, but I thought it was better than last year’s TBG line up.

Anyway, I’m sure you will have a great time. They are both terrific festivals

7

I agree re: the “Mumford & Sons factor” being a wave which has dissipated; combined with not having any really big names as “headliners” over past couple of years. Likewise, with aftermarket 4-days going for $100-$150 the past few years, I believe festivarians may have started to wake up to the fact that they don’t need to horde tix from the get go to “play it safe” for friends/crew.

It’s a very interesting dynamic to follow … especially if you consider what the price of a four day pass was for the first appearance of M&S and what it is today. PB seems to be adept at having positioned itself like giant wave machine; creating & subsequently riding the wave to fruition … and doing so in a relatively unobtrusive manner (i.e. who else allows for ticket returns?), for which I give them credit re: marketing prowess. However, I believe the big M&S wave are now just ripples, if at anything at all. Regardless of current state of affairs, Telluride’s “limited” capacity will always be an issue … and simply can’t handle an “overly successful” TBF in terms of negative baggage associated with a newly increased regular annual demand of 20k+ people who all want to squeeze into a venue which can only hold 12k. This is to say nothing of how the internal demographics of the fan base might be affected & believe there’s a certain element of “protectionism” at play re: how the “core” patrons who make the trek year after year as a pilgrimage of sorts might be “put off” if the festival is always being “overrun” by this or that particular fan base. On the surface, an increase to 20k+ in demand might seem like a “good thing”, but in reality it’s probably the last thing PB wants to contend with year after year & I think they do a good job at trying to achieve a nice balance.

As to your comment re: Hillary supporters: I realize you were trying to be lighthearted, but hopefully, events such as the TBF will serve as common ground to bridge “differences” among us. Ultimately, “Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.”

8

Even then they REALLY sucked, the Cubs were always able to draw thousands of fans to their games because of the Wrigley Field experience. The product on the field was just fine, but people came to hang out and have fun. That there was a baseball game happening at the same time was a bonus.

But then the Cubs didn’t suck. Suddenly getting a ticket at Wrigley was harder to get. I think that one reason was that baseball fans suddenly had a reason to attend. Baseball was the draw, with Wrigley as the bonus.

I think TBF is a lot like that. Thousands of us will show up for the experience, not really caring all that much who actually gets on the stage. If the product on the stage is just fine, we’re still gonna come to hang out and have fun. The lineup is a bonus.

But while a “fine” lineup will continue to be enough for me because of the overall experience, a less than stellar lineup won’t be enough to cause all music fans to consider attending. For these people, it’s the lineup that is the real draw, with the rest of the experience just a bonus.

In recent years, TBF has brought us the likes of Ry Cooder and Neil Finn - great musicians but not the draw that Robert Plant, Mumford, Lucinda Williams or David Byrne were. That’s fine with me - the lineup is a bonus. But without the big name draw, the less than usual ticket demand is understandable.

The fact that the Town Park / Warner tickets sold out fast but the 4-days didn’t just reinforces this. TP / WF is where the TBF experience manifests itself. I think i would even show up to camp there if there was NOBODY on stage. But the 4-day passes require a completely different experience, and a lot (NOT all) of these attendees will come or not depending upon the lineup.

The ticket demand can change immediately upon release of the schedule. One or two big names and suddenly TBF is once again sold out. This is why MOST of the major music festivals release a schedule BEFORE ticket sales begin. But by not doing that, TBF rewards people like me with the opportunity to GET tickets before a lineup announcement. Just think how impossible it would be to get TO / WF tickets had TBF announced Adele, Bruce, Elton, Dylan, the Dead or Phish before we vets had a chance.

Let’s see what happens when the lineup comes out. I have a feeling a big name or two might make TBF a much harder ticket, both this year and in the future.

9

Yes, this is what we can always use here, a good debate between exasperated Hillary supporters and fickle festivarians. Here’s my unsolicited two cents on this issue, and you all should pay a little more attention to what Historyman posted.
Has the festival become too scripted, too predictable? Have things become somewhat repetitive?
Start by asking, what is the best thing about TBF. Obviously, the music and the atmosphere. Has anything changed over the years? I think yes. What are some of my favourite parts of the festival? I like the House band, I like Sam and Leftover Salmon, I like the band and troubador contests. I like meeting my fellow festivarians and occasionally talking with the performers. Some of the nightgrass shows are worth way more than the admission ticket. Last year, I finally had the good fortune to hang out with all the wonderful folks at TP. Should have sone this 30 years ago.
You will notice there is a thread to some of these things. The music has changed in an important way. One of the things that has always made this festival special is that this was a place where all the artists performing here could get together here and have fun and experiment. Some very non traditional and unexpected combinations have evolved from this setting. We got to witness the evolution of John Hartford, the New Grass Revival, Hot Rize, etc…
These performers would be around all 3 or 4 days. Walk over to Elks Park, you might find all sorts of new and interesting collaborations. On top pf that, many artists would, and still do, wander around the campground and play with the fans. None of this was scripted.
But many of the acts today, especially the headliners, make it for one day. They don’t have the time to get into the communal spirit. They have other gigs to play, they have record contracts that may limit how they can perform, they worry about CD sales. They worry about how perfect their music sounds. Is someone like Fogerty or Windwood going to wander around TP at 2 AM playing music.
The good new young bands, and the ones that are not afraid to collaborate, keep this festival alive. We need more of that, and less of the straight one hour sets by bands or musicians that have no time or interest in sticking around for a few days. I think many of you know what I mean.
We like to see new things. Several years ago I was pleasantly surprised when the Jeff Austin-less Yonder played a set with Sara Watkins and Sarah Jarosz. Or the Little Smokies tearing down the house at 11 AM, then showing up to do a show under a tent in Town Park at 1 AM the same night. The fun and energy were there.
Maybe what we need are less acts and more time for collaborations. More house band, more Boom chicks, less static and repetitive sets. And that’s my view since 87.

Sorry for the length.

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This Fest is an event. Music, friends, nature, cooking together, breaking bread, dancing, swimming, howling…pretty hard to put a price on this.
This to will evolve the players change and the core pulling some in to hold tradition and the line, literally.

The lineup needs an injection of who dat like it use to. Slap you up side the head with that is defiantly NOT Bluegrass. Always enjoyed that aspect of this Fest. Tradition feels good but as I age I see a need to honor my limits and need Fest to evolve with me or scratch that and just inject a younger crowd. I think there is a evolution of crowd and taste.

Cubs have a solid core fan base cause they are cute in their uniforms. Um I mean cause the Wrigley experience ROCKS :lol

FOM I grew up in the burbs when young, Morten Grove and Hoffman Estates and my mom divorced and we moved to the city. Irving and Kimball area. First job, Lincoln Park Zoo. Fullerton Beach my hang out.

:cheers brother o mine :medal

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Yes yes yes! History bro, John, and Buckeye, you go!! I agree … I’m not buying my TP ticket because of the lineup. Its the freaking people! The experience! But Bluegrass is the catalyst for this magical experience. I love bluegrass and a big act would be awesome, but it isn’t the reason I go. :cheers :cheers

12

Well I am going to weigh into this discussion as a very recent convert. Next year will be my third visit in three years. Friends in Australia keep asking why? Aren’t there lots of other festivals I could go to?

Yesterday was hot here. We had friends visiting, it was happy, we were in and out of the pool, I was in the kitchen in my swim suit cutting up salad stuff and rocking out to the Oh Hellos ( who I had never heard of until TBGF). I was smiling and happy and I realised that this big wave of love had passed over me. " this is what it feels like when I go to Telluride" I said to my friends as I passed around the champagne.

Sunshine, friendship, great music, pleasure, laughter, making connections, loyalty, joy. That is why I keep coming back.

The music is very, very important, yes. It is the soundtrack to the experience but to me it is the love and sense of belonging that matters most. I keep coming back ( despite a 16 or 17 hour flight then connections from LA to Montrose plus a shuttle…) because it is magic.

Walking by and realising you are standing next to your favourite singer who is enjoying the band contest as much as you. Finding your new buddy on the tarp and grinning. Waving your cowgirl hat.

Stumbling out of Nightgrass, so tired because it is day three of no sleep but you just saw a performance that melts your face and you literally dance down the street at 1am

And hugging and hanging with the best and kindest folk across the waters.

I’m not going to pretend, we watched your election, we saw the divisions erupting and we got a bit worried…would we be welcome? But we decided that the magic of Telluride was more than enough.

Looking forward so much to being back, cannot wait to see the line up but the real stars of the show are you guys.

:flower :flower :flower

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I vote that we make Australian Fan the official TBF Ambassador! Your sentiments are spot-on and put a big smile on my face this morning. Thank you! :flower

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Oh yeah … I 2nd that nomination!! :flower

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And i’ll second that emotion as well.

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Australian fan, it’s going to make my festival when my wife and I finally meet you. Thanks for the outstanding response. It made my morning.

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Same Ol’ Telluride…same ol’ great!

:sunshine :lovedr :festival :lovedr :sunshine

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As the Mayor of Town Park I will make it official.
I hereby declare Leslie to be the Telluride Bluegrass Ambassador to Australia. :medal

Maybe it’s time to start organizing volunteers for the traditional pre-fest events. :thumbsup

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Oh you guys are too nice.

I already am your ambassador over here, never stop telling everyone how wonderful it is.

See you all soon, not quite six months away, hurrah

:flower :flower

20

To honour our new ambassador, we need to play a Slim Dusty set at TP next year.