I already knew the Hellman family had challenged the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass staff to come up with a worthy alternative to the annual musical gathering in Golden Gate Park the first weekend in October. I knew they had been shooting video with various artists in music towns like Austin, Nashville, and of course San Francisco. […]
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Preview
Twenty years ago next week a San Francisco musician and financier, Warren Hellman, arranged a birthday concert for his sister, a big bluegrass fan. The next year, as part of a bid to get Emmylou to play, Hellman included a modifier to the concert’s name, and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass was official. Since then the event […]
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival 2010
This year marked the 10th version of the world’s largest music festival. It’s grown from 13,000 people watching 9 acts on 2 stages in one day, called Strictly Bluegrass, to a 3-day event with nearly 90 acts on 6 stages with 650,000 attendees, called Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. All of it free: paid for by philanthropist […]
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2009
Move over Bonnaroo. Step aside Coachella. With crowd estimates hovering around 750,000 this year, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is now the country’s largest music event. And it’s free. Three days, 6 stages, 80 acts with a broad range of appeal, all courtesy of Warren Hellman, a local investment banker and philanthropist. With that many sets of […]
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, 2008 Version
First a note that with 70+ acts over 5 stages in basically 2 days (plus a short warm-up schedule Friday afternoon), any Hardly Strictly Bluegrass review is going to be partial. I’ve discovered that with careful scheduling and a knowledge of some shortcuts between stages in Golden Gate Park, I can absorb about a dozen […]