Telluride Bluegrass Festival 2026

Telluride, CO – The 53rd annual festival to take place June 18-21, 2026 in Telluride, Colorado; New first timers guide and How-To-Telluride-With-Kids encourage everyone to check Bluegrass off of their bucket lists.

Of course you’ve heard about the magic of Telluride Bluegrass Festival from friends, family, or fellow music fans. Maybe you’ve long considered packing up the car and heading into the San Juan Mountains to spend summer solstice in Telluride’s town park. To hear banjos and mandolins and fiddles reverberate through live music’s most stunning backdrop. To learn what it means to be a Festivarian*. But why Telluride Bluegrass? What’s in the air that makes this particular gathering magical? “It’s not about who you’re watching play on stage in front of you,” says Zach Tucker, Vice President of the festival’s promoter, Planet Bluegrass. “It’s about who’s sitting next to you and sharing in the moment.”

The gathering is why.

Between the legions of household name musicians, tens of thousands of lifetime festivarians, and those being introduced to the Bluegrass family for the first time, the sentiment remains largely unchanged. “Telluride Bluegrass is pure magic!” says the recently four-time Grammy Nominated Sierra Hull, who first played on the Telluride Bluegrass stage in 2016. “It’s like a big ole beautiful homecoming for all of my favorite musicians.” For 53 years, music fans have made their way to Telluride, entering as travellers and adventurers and heading home as dyed-in-the-wool Festivarians, part of a community that stretches well beyond the time and place of the festival itself; a community who knows. “Now let me see, is it turn left at Mexican Hat?” muses Telluride Bluegrass veteran and absolute legend of the genre, Peter Rowan. “Or turn right from Aztec? I’ve been there before, up from Chaco Canyon? I guess I can find my way from almost anywhere! Telluride is where it all began for me.”

So now, it’s time for newcomers and old-heads alike to answer the call, to join the thousands of folks headed to Telluride Bluegrass to be together with each other and the music, and to make sure to secure your spot in Town Park for the festival that’s been known to completely sell out of tickets and camping passes at record speed. Today, the team at Planet Bluegrass is happy to remind fans that tickets for Telluride Bluegrass Festival 2026 will go on sale on Thursday, December 11th at 10 am MT at shop.bluegrass.com.

And if all of this talk of making a first-time trip to Telluride Bluegrass is a little intimidating, fear not! The Planet Bluegrass team has laid out a helpful first-timers guide right here. Have kids and don’t know where to start in bringing them to their first (and favorite) music festival? This handy Telluride Bluegrass with Kids guide is here to make it fun for the whole family.

Please visit bluegrass.com for any and all things Telluride Bluegrass.

*The term Festivarian comes from a reinterpreted version of C.P. Cafavy’s poem, “Ithaka,” first printed in a 1994 Planet Bluegrass brochure.

“When you set out for the festival, ask that your way be long…
and if you find her poor, the festival has not deceived you,
without her you would not have set out,
and would not have known what it means to be a festivarian…”

The term stuck and was embodied in a way nobody could’ve guessed, encompassing maybe the most tight-knit community of repeat ticket-holders—and performers—known to man.

About Telluride Bluegrass Festival: Founded in 1974 and occurring annually during the summer solstice, Telluride Bluegrass has been inviting music fans to the historic mining town in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado for 4 days of adventurous acoustic music in the stunning Telluride box canyon for 50 years.

Since its early years, the unique genre of “Telluride Bluegrass” has embraced a diverse family of artists including Sam Bush, Robert Plant, Mumford & Sons, Brandi Carlile, Norah Jones, Janelle Monáe, Greensky Bluegrass, Emmylou Harris, and many of the world’s most virtuosic acoustic instrumentalists—the majority of whom have returned to the festival for 25+ years. With music on the main stage, intimate workshop performances at Elks Park, late-night indoor NightGrass concerts, and pickin’ in campgrounds and condos ‘til dawn, Telluride Bluegrass is the “granddaddy of the modern festival circuit” (Relix). Telluride Bluegrass is presented and produced by Planet Bluegrass.

About Planet Bluegrass: For over 30 years, Planet Bluegrass has been redefining the musical festival by creating exceptional experiences that protect the planet through environmental leadership and a strong community.

Fiercely and decidedly independent, their three festivals make a unique musical mark: each takes place in breathtaking natural Colorado environments, each features the world’s finest musicians and songwriters, and each embraces a “Leave No Trace” ethic that defines Planet Bluegrass as a leader in Sustainable Festivation. Planet Bluegrass presents Telluride Bluegrass, Rockygrass, and Rocky Mountain Folks Festival, bucket list musical gatherings for artists and fans alike. Planet Bluegrass is invested in the next generation of songwriters and musicians as evidenced by Rockygrass Academy and Song School.