My birthday usually "coincides" with TBF and I turn 50 on June 20th, 2023. My wife and I want to do our inaugural trip "in style" as we will be traveling from the east coast.
I'm beginning to poke around a little and see what options are available each year and starting to get some ideas. Is it too soon to start considering options?
I fly from Australia every year to come to Telluride. It’s worth the twenty plus hours of air travel!
East coast, pft, that’s nothing!
My advice is to secure your accommodation as soon as you can. Don’t bother with Air BnB, my bitter experience is that confirmed bookings mysteriously become unavailable very close to the festival. Use the official lodging services in town, they are very good. The only hitch is that you can’t really book more than a year in advance. That said, I’ve recently booked for next year. There are lots of options if you start looking in July the year before.
Book to fly to Denver then catch a connecting flight to Montrose. I’ve tried every combination, it’s the most reliable. Don’t come via Dallas.I’ve had delays every time I’ve come through there, Denver much more reliable no matter which airline. Don’t bother hiring a car in Telluride you can walk everywhere or catch the free bus in town. Book a pick up from the Montrose airport to get to Telluride. They are reliable.
Bring clothes for cold weather and clothes for a heat wave. You will need all of these. Bring lots of money. It’s a high cost town but it’s worth it. There are great bars, cafes and restaurants in town, plenty of places to celebrate a birthday.
Tickets - always hard but do not despair if you don’t get passes in the first sale. Constantly check here, tickets come up close to festival. DO NOT PAY OVER FACE PRICE. Seriously, no matter how “ desperate” you feel. Be ethical, only pay the original price. Tickets come up, it will be fine. Come to the festival even if you haven’t secured your tickets. You will find them.
Enjoy the best, most beautiful festival I’ve ever attended. It’s killing me that we have had our countries locked down and I’ve missed the last two.
I will be there next year. It’s the highlight of every year and worth every little challenge getting there might throw at you. You will experience a beautiful town, amazing music and make friends for life. Welcome to the family.
Listening to:
Greensky 
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