LOCAL TIX FOR TELLURIDE BLUEGRASS ON SALE SOON

26 Dec LOCAL TIX FOR TELLURIDE BLUEGRASS ON SALE SOON

Discounted tix on sale at Telluride Music Company, January 9 – January 31

After an unprecedented initial rush for tickets to the 2012 Telluride Bluegrass Festival (June 21-24), Planet Bluegrass is anticipating tickets to begin selling out in the next few weeks – months earlier than ever before.

To avoid conflicts with the festival selling-out prior to Telluride locals purchasing tickets, discounted tickets for Telluride locals will be sold from January 9-31 – several months earlier than past years. Tickets will be sold exclusively at Telluride Music. Locals must present a proof of residency in the 81435 zip code (e.g. ID or utility bill) in-person (no phone or internet orders). Locals tickets will be discounted to $180 (which includes a $15 discount) for a 4-day pass (cash or local check only). Purchases will be limited to 2 tickets per person. The allotment of discounted tickets will be sold first-come, first-served; so they may sell-out prior to January 31.

Regular priced tickets are available now at 800-624-2422 or www.bluegrass.com. Single-day tickets will be available later this winter after the announcement of the complete single-day lineup. As with previous years, there will be no discounts on single-day tickets.

In light of festival tickets potentially selling out earlier than ever, we highly encourage lodging companies to alert their Bluegrass bookings to purchase their tickets very early.

Volunteer applications for new volunteers will open on January 18 – online-only at www.telluridebluegrass.com.

After abuses of the merchant pass program in 2011, including physical altercations at the festival, Planet Bluegrass has decided to replace merchant passes in 2012 with an additional 250 discount locals tickets (the number of merchant passes sold in 2011), more than doubling the allotment to 450. Merchant passes – which allowed 4 different employees to transfer a pass during the festival – were originally intended to allow local workers to attend parts of the festival while continuing to work in retail and service. Bluegrass was the only Telluride festival to offer merchant passes in 2011.

Given last year’s April sell-out and national press coverage (Rolling Stone, NPR), Planet Bluegrass intentionally kept a very low profile about publicizing the initial on-sale of tickets – no last-minute reminders, no lineup announcements, no press releases. Tickets went on-sale on December 7, and after the first 6 days of ticket sales more than two-thirds of the festival’s 4-day passes have been sold.

A preliminary lineup announcement is planned for December 21 (the winter solstice), exactly 6 months before the opening day of the festival, at www.telluridebluegrass.com.

A few facts about the initial day of 2012 ticket sales (December 7):
* Camping at Warner Field, which typically sells out in a couple days, sold-out in under an hour.
* Discounted holiday tickets, which typically sell-out in mid-January, sold-out in 2 hours.
* The bluegrass.com webserver received more than 4-times more online users than its busiest day ever.

Photo credits: Slider image by Tim Benko; Jerry Douglas image by Clint Viebrock