Festivaaaaaaaaaaalll!!!

A Preview and Guide to this Summer's Telluride Bluegrass Festival

n the middle of June, the small skiing town of Telluride, Colo., gears up to showcase the greatest of Bluegrass, Folk and American Gospel music in a four-day event, aptly titled the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. The TBF has been held annually for the past 30 years, continually building a fellowship of fans and returning regulars who span the entire globe. These "festivarians," as they are known, are entirely devoted to celebrating this historic element of American music and its continuum in one of the Mountain West's greatest summer experiences.

Below is a guide to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, a guide to becoming a festivarian and celebrating one of the most unique and memorable experiences in America.

THE MUSIC
Bluegrass: a genre that evokes many feelings for many different Americans. Bluegrass is a representation of popular folk music from the historic deep Southeast. Though its exact birthplace is difficult to determine, both the grass and music’s main vein still pumps rigorously throughout the musty Appalachian Mountain range.

But one of Americana's most unique values is that its music gathers its distinction from the individual musician’s ability to jam, improvise and duel with other musicians, making the live performance both enjoyable and personally memorable for the audience.

To most, this music accompanies a certain economic status and carries an insufficient stigma for its audience. Though understandable, yet highly inaccurate, bluegrass is generally associated with the Southern slack-jawed yokel—a hillbilly playing a banjo on a porch with a jug of moonshine at his or her side. In reality, those qualities don't convey the complete picture of bluegrass and American acoustic folk music.

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