Hey there,
I'm coming up from Albuquerque (rideshare?), and it's been a challenge for me to find people to attend the show with. I'm volunteering (in hopes to meet some cool people) and because it's an interesting way to experience the event. If anyone else is going up solo, maybe you'd like to meet up? Or perhaps some really fun camp wants to invite me to have a frosty beverage or four with them? It'd be great to have some good people to meet up with! TBF is my birthday weekend!!
Once you get to Telluride you'll have NO CHALLENGE finding people to attend the show with! Just show up when the music starts and you'll have a hundred people to watch the show with!
Go ask someone if you can share a piece of their tarp. I found that was an excellent way to meet new people, everyone is SO NICE.
I attended solo last year and camped in Mary Ilium. It was great. This year, I'm doing it all over again - arriving solo, camping at Illium, looking forward to all the cool new people I'll meet.
I didn't find the bus to and from Illium to be too much of a pain, although there were definitely long lines at times. But you get a chance to talk with everyone while waiting around. And the whole bus system they've got going is really efficient, the bus drivers are real characters, and I had some really good conversations with interesting folks on the rides in and back. The longest I ever waited was about 20-25 minutes and that was at the busiest time for the buses.
I suppose it's all about time-management. If you have a volunteer shift you know you have to be at, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to catch a bus. But other than that, I really have to say that the whole festival vibe is really laid back and it's not at all worth it to worry about stuff like bus lines. Such a minor issue in the grand scheme of wonderful that is TBF.