4 Best Performing Arts Venues in Southwest Colorado, Colorado

Held each year over Labor Day, the Telluride Film Festival is up there with Sundance as one of the world's leading showcases for foreign and domestic films.

From end of June to mid-August, the Crested Butte Music Festival presents a seven-week concert series featuring opera, gypsy jazz, rock, funk, indie, chamber, and classical music in various venues in town, near the ski area, and down the road in Gunnison.

Such abundant foliage carpets the surrounding mountains that Crested Butte has been nicknamed the "Wildflower Capital of Colorado." For 10 glorious days in mid-July, the town celebrates this bounty with a varied event lineup: guided hikes, wildflower identification and photography workshops, classes on medicinal plants, and four-wheel-drive tours. Check the website, because even if you can't make it on festival week, events run from June through the end of August.

The Telluride Bluegrass Festival in June has gone far beyond its bluegrass roots and is now one of the country's premier acoustic folk–rock gatherings.