Telluride Bluegrass Festival 2025 Review: A Festivarian Changes Focus

The 52nd Telluride Bluegrass Festival took place June 19 – 22 in Telluride, CO.  Headliners included Greensky Bluegrass, Sam Bush Band, Yonder Mountain String Band, Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings, Béla Fleck, Zach Top, and many, many more!

Photographer Josh Elioseff has been attending and shooting Telluride Bluegrass for 15 years, and has contributed to Festy GoNuts for several of the last few festivals.  He announced that this would be his last year attending as a photographer, and is putting down the camera to focus on his music.  We have his final account as a photographer here.

This is it. My 2nd to last festival shoot and my last Telluride Bluegrass Festival behind the lens.

It’s a weird feeling, knowing that next year I will be photographed far more than I photograph others. I get to use other senses as I navigate the sights, sounds and hugs of my favorite festival.

The Telluride Bluegrass experience is profound. It is soul filling. It is a unique festival where the attendees and musicians feel more like family to many. I wouldn’t give it up ever.

The energy is incredible. You can feel it, touch it, taste it, and of course hear it with every note from the mandolin, every word from the vocalist, every sound of the harp… well, strung. Looking around, grasping the energy from beaming smiles and the warm rays of bright sunshine, feeling the music lift your feet off the ground, grabbing onto the nearest person and knowing that they are sharing that moment with you. Knowing that thousands of others feel the same while millions around the world are missing out is kinda special. You want to be here.

Fair warning, once you join our family, it’s hard to leave. Many have tried, as life calls from all over, and most come back. Camps have gone on for generations (one of the oldest camps in Town Park experienced the unexpected drop of the first of the fourth generation this year). While there is always a hitch in the giddy at times (trees falling, anyone?), the festival bursts with nonstop music, dancing, and yes, lots of crazy spirits running exuberantly through the crowd with bubbles, marshmallows, water guns, and a few hidden beverages that they might share with you if you ask nicely.

And all this leads back to: why would I stop capturing this magic?

Why, after 15 festivals, would I want to put the cameras down and do things differently?

Simple. My story has always been about the music. It drives me. It lifts me up, and makes me melancholy. It inspires me, and at times controls me. Also, the people are calling. I look forward to getting in more conversations, more dancing, more singing, and maybe a nap or two. And it’s time to focus differently (pun intended). I want to write my own story, one which involves a strong desire to be in front of the cameras on the main stage in 3 years. To do this requires a bit less elsewhere. And a bit more determination.

In the meantime, here it is, the story of 2025 told in stop motion. More to come on my own site. Thanks to Festy GoNuts for the outlet the last few years. It’s been a blast. And for those who know, see you out in the crowd next year. For those who’ve never been, go. I promise it’s worth it.

And look out for the crazy singing, dancing, harmonica playing 48-going-on-24-year-old with lots of energy and more stories to tell.

FESSSSSSSSSSTIVAAAAAAAAAAAAL!

~Dancin’ Josh

Follow Josh Elioseff

IG: @dancinjosh

FB: @DancerProductions