Telluride Bluegrass Music Festival

[TheWanderer]

Live free in Telluride! Whose all going? It starts today! Play some music and enjoy the company of other leather and rubber tramps!

 

[freegander]

ahhhh i wish! i'm in carbondale right now. if i could figure a way to get in without paying...

 

[Grubblin]

I'm just down the road and while I love bluegrass, I'm not a fan of Telluride.

I've heard a lot about the bluegrass festival from the locals and most of it has to do with how hard ass the cops are during the event. Keep your head down and hide well my friend. From what I hear it's pretty easy to get into trouble this weekend without even trying. Good luck!

 

[freegander]

I've heard a lot about the bluegrass festival from the locals and most of it has to do with how hard ass the cops are during the event. Keep your head down and hide well my friend.

dang. that's good to know, since i plan on going next year. maybe it's not heaven on earth like i expected...haha

 

[Grubblin]

I don't want to ruin your fun, go, have a great time, just be extra careful.

My sense of Telluride is that it's a very eclectic mix of old hippies that moved there in the 60s and 70s and rich, snobby yuppsters (yuppie-hipsters). The hippies are great and very welcoming but they're fading out with age. I don't think I have to tell you about the yuppsters. The area truly is beautiful beyond compare, it's the people that fuck it up.

I've worked in Telluride several times and the cops have questioned me pretty hard every single time. I think that had I not had a legitimate reason for being there they would've found a reason to take me in. I hear that it's much worse during festivals and the bluegrass is one of the biggest of the year.

Go to the library and read the sign they have posted in the alcove on the North side where the keep the garbage cans if you want proof. Very Traveller hostile!

 

[VikingAdventurer]

...Go to the library and read the sign they have posted in the alcove on the North side where the keep the garbage cans if you want proof. Very Traveller hostile!...

... Or, you could just tell us what the sign says, instead of encouraging us to risk arrest or harassment by the cops?

Just a thought.::angelic::

 

[Grubblin]

Here's another thought. I spent forty-five minutes, at least, writing and editing the post to the OP. I did this in order to keep the OP and anyone else interested in going to Telluride from getting arrested.

As of this moment, I now know that I was trying to get people arrested by not telling exactly what the sign says. How does that possibly make sense? If I wanted people to get arrested I would've put "Hey, Tellurides the best fucking place in Earth. The town council will you rides for hundreds of miles for free. There's absolutely no such thing as laws. Best of all, there's free money, food, booze, sex, and drugs on every corner". I think I just described heaven, accidentally of course.

Encouraging people to get arrested by not telling you exactly what the sign says. Really?

I was going to take and post a picture to the thread when I'm up there next but I think I'll skip it, it's out of the way anyway. Plus I'm sure posting a picture would be encouraging people to be beaten by police and have long prison sentences.

 

[VikingAdventurer]

... I did this in order to keep the OP and anyone else interested in going to Telluride from getting arrested...

... You DO realize what type of community and forum you're on here, right? I'm fairly certain that everyone on here has curiosity running through their veins, so why the fuck would you literally ENCOURAGE folks on here to travel all the way there and "Go to the library and read the sign they have posted in the alcove on the North side where the keep the garbage cans if you want proof.", if indeed the town IS, as you claim, "Very Traveller hostile!"? ::

Have you SEEN this sign? If so, would have been THAT difficult to just add into your post something along the lines of "This town isn't very friendly to travelers, in fact there's even a sign above the garbage cans at the library that says _________ !"

I legitimately didn't mean any offense by my first post; I was simply expressing my curiosity, and asking if you would be willing to pass along what might be a piece of useful information.

No need for you to get all uppity and butthurt about it. ::asshat::

 

[Grubblin]

I'm going to post here one more time but there are two things I'm not going to do. First, I'm not going to devolve this into name calling. Second, I'm done posting to this thread after this. I'm not going to do either of these things because it's just not that important for me to be right about this. You can post again if you wish, as many times as you wish, and at that point, then you've won, congratulations! So let's throw quotes, as you've thrown mine back at me, and be done with it.

I know EXACTLY who the community and forum is to whom I'm posting, that's why I did it. If everyone here had a stock portfolio, a 100k in the bank, a matching set of Range Rovers, and most importantly, a lawyer on retainer/speed dial then they would fit right in at Telluride - no need of a warning. Plus, I wouldn't be on here in the first place.

I never encouraged anyone to go to the town. The closet I came too encouragement was by saying "The area truly is beautiful beyond compare" and it is, but so is most of Southwestern Colorado. I then added, "it's the people that fuck it up". I would think that last quote would discourage most people in this community and on this forum, seeing as how I had spent the post talking about the heavy-handed police presence and how i didn't care for the place. I would think that the quote you threw back at me of "Very Traveller hostile!", would also be very discouraging whether I quoted the sign or not, may be I'm wrong about that but that quote would be all it took for me not to visit the town. It's not my wish, nor my job, to encourage anyone here to visit or not visit any area for any reason. I was simply relating what I heard from locals who had worked in the town for years, and my limited but negative experiences. My intention was to let the OP know since I, mistakenly, thought that they were already in town to be careful. Had they been in town and wanted proof, they could see the alcove and read the sign by just taking a short walk - in fairness, I did not mention that in my post so again, my mistake. It's about 5 foot by 5 foot square in striking red and white that you can read from walking down the alley by the library. I'll get to that later.

Again, to be clear, my intention was not to promote anyone to visit anywhere. Nor was my intention to ruin the good time of the OP who I thought was already in town. My intention was to try to let the OP know to watch their ass so that they didn't get a fine that they couldn't pay or a night in jail that they didn't want for doing something trivial, like sleeping in an alley where they thought they were hidden. A fine or jail time for an offense that in most places the cops would laugh at, or just tell you to leave, but not Telluride. I don't imagine that any area on Earth is very beautiful while looking through razor wire on top of a ten foot chain link fence.

The reason that I was so "uppity and butthurt" about it is that you accused me of "encouraging us to risk arrest or harassment by the cops". I would never encourage anyone to risk arrest or harassment by anyone especially by the cops. Those that do are on the same level as those who call the police about every little thing. Both of those types of people are just above the level of a squeaky, little la rata and I can't think of too many types of people in this world who are worse than a rat. I don't call the cops, I don't talk, EVER, and believe it or not I don't 'encourage anyone to get arrested or harassed' for any reason curiosity or not. Speaking of curiosity, if everyone wants to know what it says then why are you the only one who said anything? It doesn't seem like there are many shy people, afraid of life, on this forum or in this community.

Now the sign, which is way the fuck overblown by this point. I was going to take a picture and post it to this forum the next time i was up there so i could get the verbiage exactly right. I didn't put that in the post either but I purposely omitted it in case my work plans changed or I forgot. As I said before, it's a 5x5, maybe a six by six, metal sign in red and white that looks like it gets polished twice a day. To paraphrase

WARNING
No stopping, standing, sitting, resting, smoking, sleeping in this area FOR ANY REASON! Violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law! NO EXCEPTIONS!

It then goes on to list several town, county, state ordinances by which they can prosecute. See, the description doesn't give it as much justice as a picture would but I'm done with this thread after this post.

Many of you are more well traveled than I am so maybe this is a standard sign in the larger cities that I avoid. For me, this was the first time to see such a sign and the message, coupled both with what I had heard and the treatment that I received made it foreboding.

I would have gladly, calmly explained this had you not added that i was "encouraging us to risk arrest or harassment by the cops". The post this morning was sarcasm with teeth (meant to be more funny than anything and no I'm not apologizing for anything), but it was a guppy in a fish bowl, and yes, that one line made me mildly "uppity and butthurt", but mildly is the key word. If I ever truly get "uppity and butthurt", I'll probably get banned from this site because on that day that I do get "uppity and butthurt" that fuckin' post will be JAWS in a swimming pool!

With that, I am DONE!

 

[Coywolf]

^if there was EVER an over-explanation, that would be it.

I went to the festival this year for free by volunteering for Leave No Trace. I got a backstage pass, and ate lunch with Sam Bush. It was fucking awesome. Expecially Parker Millsap.

It's fucking easy to tramp in Telluride, just don't look/act like an asshole, plenty of places to camp right outside the fest and watch from above. I watched people jumping the fence left and right.

 

[TheWanderer]

Damn ::joyful:: strong opinions on this thread. I love Colorado but I do agree about the cops being ass holes. Met a guy named Joshua who said he's been tramping around for a bit. I met him in Aspen at the John Denver Memorial. I was just chilling playing guitar and he came up and started talking to me about John Denver and Aspen and all the hitchhiking and stuff he's been doin. He said he had been stuck there for 8 days and every time he sat down somewhere he'd get sited for "camping". Which made it even harder for him to actually sleep. He said he had fallen asleep while sitting up on a bench just because if he tried to lay out any sort of tarp, blanket, or even just lay down on the floor, the cops would bust his balls every time.

Back to the point, everyone in Aspen and Telluride alike have developed the "too good for you" attitude and it often gets flashed to tourists and travelers alike.

But the festivals are still fun to enjoy. Half the people just suck and you can't stay long because you're paying $15 for top ramen ::facepalm::