If the Telluride Bluegrass Festival has been on your bucket list, there’s still time to cross it off in 2025.
Zach Tucker, vice president of the fest’s production company Planet Bluegrass, tells The Denver Post there are “a fair amount” of tickets still available for this year’s event at shop.bluegrass.com. That includes passes to two campgrounds outside of downtown Telluride.
The fest (June 19-22) is one of the town’s most popular summer gatherings, welcoming about 12,000 people per day to enjoy live music in the scenic box canyon. The fact it isn’t sold out is unusual since tickets are known to evaporate almost instantaneously once they hit the digital box office.
Tucker doesn’t think the lineup is to blame. Headliners this year include Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Allison Krauss & Union Station, Lake Street Dive and, of course, Sam Bush, who has been a staple of the event throughout its 52-year run.
Instead, Tucker suspects part of the issue is that people don’t want to go through the hassle of competing for tickets.
“Some of it might be that we’re fighting that exact thought of, ‘It’s sold out, I shouldn’t even look,’” Tucker said. “It’s very interesting to be like, how do you change everyone’s thought that, ‘oh we can’t go so we’re not going to think about it’?”
Planet Bluegrass has been working in recent years to address the frustration caused by sell-outs. In 2023, when the festival celebrated its 50th anniversary, organizers reclaimed a number of tickets that were purchased by scalpers and bots, and then resold them to fans.
Last year, the company tried to get ahead of the bots by implementing a pre-sale registration system to verify buyers were real people. The day before tickets went on sale, fans made a $10 pre-sale purchase, which granted them access to buy festival passes the following day. (Proceeds benefitted Planet Bluegrass’ carbon offset fund.)
“Once we implemented this new program, we have not had the problems we had in 2023, so it works extremely well,” Tucker said.
According to Planet Bluegrass, the festival didn’t technically sell out in 2024. The town of Telluride allowed the event to increase its capacity late last spring, so there ended up being tickets available to walk-up patrons. It was close to selling out, but not quite all the way there, the company said.
Still, economic factors may be coming into play. Festivals around the U.S., from Coachella to Burning Man, have experienced ticket sale slumps recently. Organizers canceled many small and midsize music festivals last year due to underwhelming ticket sales, as did touring artists such as The Black Keys and Jennifer Lopez.
On Reddit, fans of the Electric Forest music festival in Michigan cite the cost of tickets, unpredictable weather, and a plethora of summer music events to choose from as potential deterrents for ticket buyers. A four-day to that event costs $600 plus additional camping fees.
Tucker acknowledged that no event is immune from the economic headwinds facing the country right now. Still, he thinks Telluride Bluegrass is better insulated than most because of its long legacy and the community it brings together. He sees the availability of tickets as an chance to bring new festivarians into the fold.
“It’s been something so many people want to do,” Tucker said. “This is your opportunity to make this happen.”
Tickets to the 52nd Telluride Bluegrass Festival cost $130 for single-day access and $405 for a four-day pass. Find those and camping options at shop.bluegrass.com.
