The house lights dim, the stage lights go up. The models strut down the catwalk in perfectly choreographed moves, dressed in the most daring and innovative fashions, music pumping, the crowd hooting and clapping. It is the most anticipated event of the spring: the annual Telluride AIDS Benefit Fashion Show. But it’s not just the powerful, inspiring performances that make it the greatest fashion show on earth—it’s also what happens behind the scenes.
Telluride AIDS Benefit has been holding the fashion show and raising funds for HIV/AIDS patient care in Colorado and Africa since 1994—when the disease was the leading cause of death for Americans age 25–44, an epidemic. Since then, TAB has raised more than $2 million to fight the spread of the disease, to fund patient care programs, and to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS. And the fight’s not over. The disease may not be in the headlines every day in 2016, but it’s still an epidemic. There are an estimated 39 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, and more than 12,000 people in Colorado alone. Even more frightening is the fact that one in five people living with HIV don’t know their status. The cost for care of just one person living with HIV is $3,500 per month, $42,000 per year. The services provided by TAB are needed just as urgently now as ever.
What can you do? Your part is easy—you get to sit back and watch the incredible performance, and bid on some unique auction items like grandstand passes to a NASCAR race, Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Tickets (the event is invitation only, so these are a score), tickets to the exclusive New York Fashion Week shows, and much more. The Telluride AIDS Benefit has turned into a week of haute couture, art, parties, and trunk shows. Here’s a video of one of the shows, and an overview of the schedule:
////TAB 2.0 from FELT SOUL MEDIA on Vimeo.
TAB Student Show
Michael D. Palm Theater Friday Feb. 19, 6pm
Tickets $10/student, $20/adults
Tickets available at aidsbenefit.org or at the door.
Reserve seating available by contacting Sandy McLaughlin @ 970.519.0081
Sneak Peek Show
Telluride Conference Center
Thursday Feb. 25, 8pm
Tickets available @ aidsbenefit.org
Art Auction
Sheridan Opera House
Friday Feb. 26, noon – 9pm
Free to the public. Artist reception starts at 6pm.
CHIP Kids Art Auction
Sheridan Opera House Gallery Room
Friday Feb. 26, noon – 9
TAB Designer Trunk Shows
Friday, Feb. 26
Designers will be donating a portion of their sales to TAB.
Earthling Jewelry by Erica Clum @ Cashmere Red, 4-6pm
Blair Lauren Brown Jewelry @ Telluride Gallery, 4-6pm
Lily Guilder Design @ Studio Frank, 3-7pm
Borris Powell Ready to Wear @ Telluride Beauty Bar, 3-7pm
FREE HIV Testing
Wilkinson Public Library
Friday, Feb. 26, 10-3
Hosted by TAB beneficiary, Western Colorado AIDS Project. Results in 10 minutes.
Gala Fashion Show
Telluride Conference Center
Saturday Feb. 27, 8pm
Tickets available @ aidsbenefit.org
Telluride AIDS Benefit & Telluride Gay Ski Week AFTER PARTY featuring DJ Ruckus
Sheridan Opera House, Saturday Feb. 27, 10pm
Tickets available @ aidsbenefit.org
Closing out the week of amazing events, Telluride Gay Ski + TAB present DJ RUCKUS. Hailed by GQ as “the most sought after DJ in the world,” DJ Ruckus has established himself as the premiere open-format deejay. At sixteen years old, Ruckus was headlining the biggest nightclubs in his native Miami. By the following year, Ruckus was behind the turntables at Diddy’s lavish birthday bash in Morocco and performing his signature fusion of hip-hop, rock, electro, house, soul, funk, and reggae around the globe.
Designer Sample Sale
Sheridan Opera House
Monday February 28, 10am – 6pm
All designer clothing donated to TAB not sold in the live auction will be for sale to the public at great discounts!
To volunteer for this year’s event, contact volunteers@aidsbenefit.org.
The 2016 Show Theme
Party. Fight. Fear. Live.
Artistic Direction by brother and sister team Colin Sullivan and Jessica Galbo. The theme of this year’s show will take audience members through the Rock and Roll decades of this disease from the 1970s until today. The history of the HIV virus is a complex and dynamic ongoing story of culture, medicine, politics, sex, mystery and heartbreak. Most importantly, it’s a story of people—the people who contracted and died from the virus and the people who lost friends and loved ones to the virus. Finding a path out of this darkness means understanding one simple thing: no one is immune.
The Live Stream
Saturday, February 27, 8 pm
The Town of Mountain Village will air the Gala live – on Mountain Village Cable Channel 15 and online at townofmountainvillage.com/video
The Live Auction
The bulk of TAB funds are raised each year via the Live Auction, which follows both the Sneak Peek, and Gala Fashion shows. This year’s auction items will include some incredible donated items not available anywhere else.