Telluride Blues & Brews Festival

29th Annual – September 15-17, 2023 – Telluride, CO

One of the most scenic music festivals in the country, the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival takes place every September in Telluride, Colorado, a world-famous resort town in the heart of the Rocky Mountains.

The festival is a three day celebration of music and microbrews, held in Telluride Town Park, an outdoor music venue with breathtaking mountain peaks for a backdrop. By day, experience live blues, rock, funk, gospel, and soul, the best microbrews from over 50 microbreweries during Saturday’s Grand Tasting, a wide variety of food and craft vendors, children’s activities, and more – all on the festival grounds. By night, follow the festival as it flows into the town of Telluride and Mountain Village, with late night juke joints and after-hours jams.

At the heart of the venue is the Fred Shellman Memorial Stage, a small, humble wooden stage that has held the weight of legends over the years. When B.B. King performed here in 2004, he sat on this same stage, looked out at the mountains before him, and told the crowd, “Out of the 90 different countries I’ve been to, I’ve never seen anything more beautiful than what you have here.” It’s not the altitude that’ll take your breath away. It’s the views.

At 8750 feet above sea level, the historic mining town of Telluride serves as a ski-resort town in the winter and the festival capital of Colorado in the summer. Telluride’s main street, just steps away from the festival grounds, is home to a wide variety of shops, restaurants, and bars. At night, after the music ends in the park, the festival scene moves into various honky-tonks located throughout the town of Telluride and Mountain Village. These are the “juke joints,” and once they get jamming a walk down main street feels like a walk down Beale Street in Memphis.

The festival is only three days and three nights, but if you can, stay longer. Once you get to Telluride, you’re not going to want to go home.

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