I decided to make the focus of this post the festival itself and focus the next post on non-festival related things.

On our first full day in Telluride, we made ourselves a quick breakfast at our condo and then hopped on the gondola to take us down the mountain and in to town to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.

The gondola was an interesting experience. Mostly I didn’t find it too scary during the day, though I was not a big fan of that stomach dropping feeling you got when it first started heading down the mountain. The gondola at night, now that was a different story. You are in the mountains! At night! It’s pitch black! You are hanging from a cord above a mountain in a glass bubble and you can’t see the hand in front of your face. Need I say more?

During the day however, you got to take in some beautiful scenery from the gondola and you got to meet some interesting people like this guy:

The dog’s name was Rudy and he was the friendliest, cuddliest little guy ever. In what may have been the cutest event I have ever witnessed, Rudy climbed up on the bench next to Chris and put his little head on Chris’s lap. Chris started petting him and the little boy who was with Rudy looked at Chris very seriously and said, “I think he likes you.” I’m pretty sure that’s the very definition of totes adorbs. Good thing Chris and I are both dog lovers.

My first glimpse at Telluride during the day did not disappoint. As I said earlier, it’s a great little town which is surrounded by these views.

Even the festival itself had a stunning backdrop.

Food was a little tough for me in this environment, but I packed some snacks from our condo and was also able to eat some “pizza” and grilled corn at the festival. Chris was super excited though, to get these chicken and basil dumplings which are apparently amazing and one of the highlights of the festival for many. They contain lots of stuff that I’m allergic to so they were a no no for me, but I was glad to see Chris enjoy them.

For me the highlight of the festival was meeting The Lone Bellow!! They are one of my favorite bands and I highly recommend checking them out. The members of the band all live in Brooklyn and the female in the group, Kanene Pipkin, and I actually have a friend in common. They were so nice and it was so fun to talk about our shared love of Brooklyn and our mutual friend.

Days two, three and four of the festival was much the same; great music, extraordinary weather, not so great “pizza” , Chris alternating between dumplings and chicken tacos and sunsets that looked like this.

Chris kept worrying about me, as this festival definitely skews hippie and I’m decidedly un-hippie (for the record he’s pretty damn un-hippie too), but I love live music and generally I enjoy a festival atmosphere. My only issue with this festival is that because of the dry mountain climate and all the people dancing, there is dust everywhere. It gets in your eyes and nose and you need to scrub it off of yourself when you get back to where you’re staying. Still the pleasures of the music and the atmosphere far outweighed any of the annoyances.

Do you enjoy live music? Have you ever had the opportunity to meet one of your favorite artists?