Every morning at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, the early birds wait in line for 'the run'.
Initially the band walks quietly to the stage. On cue, the bag pipes bellow out a mesmerizing wake up call and distant cheers are heard from tents in the forest. With a twist of styles, suddenly a horn section backed by an amplified banjo launch into the classical song called the "William Tell Overture" (aka 'that famous horse racing song').
And then the mad dash begins.
First are the hard core festivarians who have slept in line. They are followed closely by the early riser who stumbled to concert ground with coffee in hand as well as the partiers who have yet to sleep at all.
The goal is to place your tarps and chairs as close to the stage as possible for the full day/night of concerts ahead. This is repeated each morning of the event, yet I only managed to wake up early enough to photograph it once.
Thank you to J.Cohn for giving me access.
© Peter Stanley
