Thousands gather at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, nestled into the Rocky Mountains

Web posted on: Thursday, June 18, 1998 5:45:27 PM

From Correspondent Ron Tank

TELLURIDE, Colorado (CNN) -- Think of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, which starts Thursday and lasts through the weekend, as a four-day picnic and party -- Woodstock in the west, now in its 25th year.

"For most of these people, it's probably the most looked-forward-to event of the year for them," festival producer Craig Ferguson said.

What makes 10,000 people transverse narrow mountain roads or fly in tiny 20-seat planes just to get to the bluegrass festival? The town of Telluride is a big part of the attraction.

Telluride hasn't changed much over the past 100 years

Step back in time

With just 1,600 residents, Telluride almost gets lost amid the mountains that surround it. Many of the homes reflect another century. And there's not a stoplight within miles.

"Here it's pretty much the way it was, with some exceptions, a hundred years ago," historian Ashley Boling said.

Telluride became a town in 1879 when gold and silver were discovered. Within a few years, 5,000 people lived here, in spite of the high cost of living.

"At the turn of the century the average miner was making about $2.40 a day," Boling said. "At the general store during that time, one egg cost $2."

Butch Cassidy was here

Today, prices are still high. But there seems to be a bank on every block, and there's a plaque commemorating the bank that was the first heist for Butch Cassidy in 1889.

There's not much crime in Telluride now. At a "free box," you can take what you need, and drop off what you don't want.

What you won't find are tickets to the festival. It sold out in March.

The word is out

"The word is out that if you want to go to this festival, you order early," Ferguson said. "Most people didn't realize that for this year it'd be two months early, but they plan ahead."

The lineup for the festival includes more than just bluegrass. Bruce Hornsby will be here, along with Bela Fleck, Emmy Lou Harris, and the rock 'n' roll band Big Head Todd and the Monsters.

"The music now has a name. It's called Americana," Dan Sadowsky, the festival MC for 24 years, said. "It's bluegrass and it's folk, it's really the folk music of the 1990s and on into the next millenium."

Whatever you call it, it seems to sound better in Telluride.