On celebrating anniversaries as planned (and leaving COVID out of it)

When I saw that the Telluride Bluegrass Festival was celebrating its 50th annual festival this year (2023), I had to pause and do some counting.

Like so many events, the festival was cancelled in 2020—it would have marked the 47th annual occurrence.

But they counted the year anyway—the next year was 48, 2022 was 49, and 2023 will be 50.

If we want to nitpick, this year will really mark the 49th annual festival.

But maybe the organizers have it right.

No one really wants the math to not add up forever after. Started in 1974, this year would mark the half-century for the festival.

Plus, there’s a pretty good precedent: the Olympics.

The official name of each Olympics marks off four-year periods, even when the Olympics was not formally held. We will have the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in 2024, despite having celebrated only 28 Olympic Games in the modern era. The Olympic Games of 1916, 1940, and 1944 were cancelled because of the World Wars.

So let’s keep counting as planned and attempt to restrain the nitpicker inside us all.