Now that it’s over. What were your highlights? Any feedback or suggestions?

Festivarian Events Telluride Bluegrass Festival
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I have to say that this was one of the best Telluride’s I’ve attended. Apart from great weather I was also blown away by quality of music this year. So many highlights. I always love discovering new performers and it was terrific to see Rainbow Girls. Even though I’m not a big country fan I really liked Zach Top’s set. Such boyish charm and he’s so catchy.

Highlights were Gillian & Dave and Kasey Chambers in a star studded line up. And, of course, it was my life long dream to see AKUS ( how many times did I mention her here?) and that was perfection.

I have two comments. Firstly, are there fewer collaborations these days? Just feels as though there are not quite as many guests joining bands on stage? I miss that. Was always fun to see performers play together on stage - I know there were some but it felt less than usual?

Also, I kept waiting for an acknowledgement of Brian Wilson on final day. I know he’s not Bluegrass but such a big influence on contemporary music. Did I miss something?

But overall, it was stunning. I’m still floating, great job Planet Bluegrass. You deserved good weather and the gods delivered picture perfect days and nights. Everyone seemed happy and the vibe was really good.

We needed a bit of Telluride magic to counteract some pretty terrible times. You delivered in spades, thank you.

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Punch Brothers did a tribute to Brian Wilson.
Weather was great, but we really could have used a couple small rain showers as the dust was terrible! Last time we had a TBF without any rain was in 2017, and that year PB brought in trucks into the festival grounds and sprayed down all the loose dirt areas to keep dust down, they didn’t do that this year, I’m still coughing up dust bunnies!
Best sets for me were, Gillian and Dave, Traveling McCourys, Punch Bros, Bela’s Beatrio, Sam Bush, Ken Pomeroy, Dug, Olive Klug, Rebirth, Tim O’Brien and the Toy Factory set.
It was definitely one of the best Pre-Fests I’ve ever had! Got in a new hike, and an amazing bike ride, first time in Telluride I didn’t go over the handlebars on the downhill! We had a great camp group in Camp Lampshadey Grove, and we had a super fun parade on Saturday, and we had some amazing jams in camp thanks to the John Depew Trio camping with us! If you didn’t make it to one of the many jams in our camp, or didn’t catch John Depew trio playing the Friday Harmony Green set, you should really check them out! They will be playing all the stages at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield KS this September, and will be at Bushyhead.
Over-all the line-up was pretty good. I discovered several bands I liked that were totally new to me. Also discovered a few bands I don’t like that were new to me like Zach Top (we packed and left before he played), Kasey Chambers, and Thee Sacred Souls. Lake Street Dive is a great band but this was the 2nd or 3rd time they’ve played in the last 10 years, and for not being a bluegrass band thats not the kind of repeat performer I’m interested in having back. I was completely disappointed in the Isbell set, though I didn’t have high expectations going in, but the sound wasn’t great and I felt the performance lacked serious energy, and felt like a “phoning it in” set, so after about 3 songs we left and watched from RAM.
There were several sit ins, all of these bands had special guests: McCourys, I’m with her, Gillian and Dave, Water Tower, Rainbow Girls, Tim O’Brien, Greensky, Sam Bush, Toy Factory, and the House Band all had sit in’s some had several!
I hope next year the lineup includes Leftover, Hot Rise, Dusters, and something with Kyle Tuttle!
My only complaint is can’t we have the tarp run at 10am everyday, and not do the 9am tarp run!
Wholeheartedly agree with Lesley, that TBF is not only a mental reset, but it’s a beacon of hope, to see all sorts of folks from all sorts of backgrounds, beliefs, and nationalities love each other, help each other and care about each other the way humans are supposed to, well that is a powerful thing to take home! Let’s all shine that TBF light brightly in our regular lives, and just maybe we can make a difference.

Here’s John Depew’s latest release: Unsupported browser

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Hey thanks Todd, I knew that PB did the BW tribute but I honestly thought that we’d see something on the final day with Houseband, etc.

Good to hear different opinions on the line up. I thought Zach Top was fun! Liked seeing all the young ones get excited too.

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Hey thanks Todd, I knew that PB did the BW tribute but I honestly thought that we’d see something on the final day with Houseband, etc.

Good to hear different opinions on the line up. I thought Zach Top was fun! Liked seeing all the young ones get excited too.

Honestly I loved Kasey Chambers set.

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Being from Oklahoma, we are smothered in real country music. Not that I think ZT isn’t good, I’m just already over saturated in 90’s country! We see bands like ZT in small honky Tonks, which is in my opinion the best places to see that style of music. I’d never heard of Chambers before, I did my listening research, and nothing stood out for me. It also served as the best time to get Monica’s Birthday Fish Fry dinner cooked before Sam’s set! Most years I don’t attend the last two sets, except for Sam’s, partly because I don’t like standing shoulder to shoulder in a large crowd, and partly because most of the headliners over the years haven’t been things I’m very interested in seeing. That being said, this year I caught all or a large part of 4 of the 8 headliners Gillian and David being my favorite by far!

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Ok it was great, one of the best fests I have ever attended.

But I will say, there were sound issues. Toy Factory project was the main one where it was beyond noticeable but it was happening a lot more

Like some instruments had no volume, then twice the volume they should have. That’s my only critique.

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I didn’t pick up on any sound issues, other than they typically turn the main levels much higher during the night sets, and sometimes that distorts the sound depending where you are located.

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