Festival Pick of the Week: Telluride Blues and Brews

Sep 14, 2010 by Anonymous

With most of the state already into the off-season, Telluride likes to host one last party every summer. After Bluegrass, Jazz, Phish and the countless other festivals, it is many local’s opinions that they also save the best for last with Blues and Brews.

“Blues & Brews is definitely my favorite (festival), it’s got a great feel to it,” said Scott Jones, a longtime local and manager of Telluride’s only oxygen bar, The Bubble Lounge. On a sidenote, the bar has a great hangover special that includes oxygen and a Bloody Mary.

This year’s Blues and Brews lineup includes Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, Galactic, JJ Grey and Mofro, George Thorogood, Ronnie Baker Brooks and a slew of other top names in the business. B.B. King will close down the festival on the main stage Sunday night. It was King who once remarked to the Blues and Brews crowd, “Out of the 90 different countries I’ve been to, I’ve never seen anything more beautiful than what you have here.”

Now, as you may remember reading in the pages of Mousike (Issue 10, pages 17-18), we have recommended that you to make it to Telluride once this summer for a festival. And this is the weekend to do it… not only is there a great lineup, but the foliage is changing to yellow and the weather websites are calling for sunny and 70 all weekend long. I was knocking on wood profusely as I wrote that, as we all know that the weather in the rockies can be pretty temperamental and that the Meteorologist have been known to get it wrong once in awhile.

But that being said, Blues and Brews is not only about the music and the hopefully nice weather. The vibe of Blues and Brews is one of the best of any festival I’ve ever been to. While everyone’s partying and rocking out, the crowd must be professional festivarians (or in perfect form by the end of the summer) because somehow everything stays in control and never turns into a total shit show. Try and figure that one out!

So come on down and bring your dancing shoes because this is one festival that everyone shakes their bones.

About Blues and Brews:

• 3 day festival in Telluride’s Town Park This Friday through Sunday!
• Night time “Juke Joint” shows at Telluride’s clubs at night. The Juke Joints make a walk down Colorado Ave feel like a walk down Beale Street in Memphis.
• Beer tasting with over 50 microbreweries inside the festival grounds on Saturday afternoon

VIP passes are sold out, but there are still 3 day and single day passes available at the Blues and Brews website