04 Jun Telluride Bluegrass: Traveling Light Takes A Second Bow, 6/20!
The Telluride Bluegrass Festival announces 2026 lineup with top-to-bottom emphasis on world-class pickers.
Tedeschi Trucks Band, Gregory Alan Isakov, Larkin Poe, Shakey Graves, Flatland Cavalry, and more join a stellar string band lineup for this year’s festival, June 18-21, 2026,
A select few tickets and camping pass options are still available at shop.bluegrass.com. For those making their first trek to Telluride—or if it’s been a while—the Planet Bluegrass team has laid out a helpful guide for first-timers 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.
For everything else, please visit bluegrass.com.
Go here for more about the history of Telluride Bluegrass. (Back to 2009.)
And please scroll down to learn more about Rachel Sumner and her trio, Traveling Light, including a podcast.
Band shot by Orion Willits.
Their live show is consistently described as the heart of what this trio does. They have toured coast to coast, bringing what is repeatedly described by critics and audience alike as a “spellbinding live show” to listening rooms, libraries, farms – and festivals.
“…more of a campfire and back porch thing than some elitist craft,” raved The Boston Globe.
They have played the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival; the Earl Scruggs Festival; IBMA; and storied folk rooms like Caffé Lena and Club Passim
They are Traveling Light.
The Boston-based acoustic string trio is comprised of Rachel Sumner on vocals, guitar, and banjo; Kat Wallace on fiddle; and Mike Siegel on upright bass. Sumner and Wallace are classically trained, while Siegel came up through rock, punk, and then jazz before bluegrass pulled the three together. Sumner and Wallace both also work on staff at Club Passim in Cambridge, the legendary folk venue.
“This was The shirt I had made for Chris Thile not long before my first Telluride trip. This photo of us was right after I gave it to him, ” explains Rachel.
“My first time riding the gondola into Telluride! 2011, ” adds Rachel.
Rachel (and Traveling Light) after winning the Telluride BLuegraa Band contest in 2025!
A notable milestone for Traveling Light. In June 2024 the trio performed in the Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress as part of the American Folklife Center’s Homegrown concert series. The Library’s writeup highlighted how Traveling Light’s instrumentation shows roots deep in bluegrass and traditional folk, while Sumner’s lyric-forward writing and snaking chord progressions venture beyond folk conventions, showcasing her bandmates’ range. Five of Sumner’s original songs are now archived at the Library of Congress.
Another notable milestone will be Traveling Light’s encore at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.
Traveling Light won the 2025 Telluride Bluegrass Band Contest. And there is a lovely what-goes-around to that story: Sumner first came to the festival at 18, volunteering at the compost bins to earn her ticket, while dreaming of one day playing the Main Stage herself.
The Telluride Bluegrass Band contest dates back to 1985, with past winners including The Chicks, the Lil’ Smokies, Greensky Bluegrass, Trout Steak Revival, and Ryan Shupe & the Rubber Band…
Beating out a field of 12 bands in total is a concrete endorsement of how Traveling Light can hold a stage.
See for yourself on Saturday, June 20.
For more, check out TIO’s podcast with Rachel Sumner.
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