Hardly Strictly Bluegrass brings in people from all over, but why?
Photo by Stephanie Casillas
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is a three-day music festival that took place last weekend in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. This free festival was founded by Warren Hellman, and first started in 2001 when it only had two stages and was only available for a day. The now 25-year-old festival is still free and remains without any corporate sponsors.
John Caldon, the executive director of the festival, stated that the ethos of the festival is that they remain without any corporate sponsors, as well as stating, “We really lean into the hardly of it all,” Caldon added, “We are aggressively free.”
How far do you think people will travel for a free festival?
After conducting 12 interviews, I found that people would actually travel just for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass — even taking two flights just to make it to the festival. Dory Mande has attended for two years and said she traveled all the way from Cape Town, South Africa because of love and “the freedom of movement and wide choice within a limited kind of genre of music, and like-minded people.”
Mande said she loves the festival so much that if it weren’t free, she would pay for it. Her first flight was 14 hours, from Cape Town to New York. From New York she flew to California, for the festival.
“I will do it again, and again,” she said.
Attendees like Mandy prove the love for the festival has spread beyond the U.S.
Caldon stated, “Warren jokingly called it his selfish gift.”
One attendee, Ron Hill, mentioned it was amazing that Hellman funded the festival during his lifetime and that it has continued even afterwards.
Hill stated, “When it ends, I'll be really sorry because there's a lot of people that won’t be able to experience it then.”
Hill has been attending for around 12 or13 years, and came from Winters, Calif. He said that he would pay to attend the festival, but it being free is part of the vibe.
Living at a time where prices have increased for attending festivals and concerts, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is one that stands out, especially in San Francisco.
Michael Hartman has been attending the festival for five years and explained his reasoning behind coming back every year.
“It’s so much fun, [it] restores my faith in humanity,” said Hartman.
He also mentioned the festival is absolutely worth it and traveled in an RV all the way from San Diego. Michael mentioned that the festival being free is definitely a factor in why he attends because he would rather not pay $800 for attending all three days of a festival.
The festival brings in people who have attended since its start, and people who are here for their first year. David Marglin, located in Haight Ashbury, has been attending ever since the start of the festival — when it was called “Strictly Bluegrass.” He also attended in 2003 when they first added “Hardly” to the name.
He has noticed a huge change since he first started attending. He mentioned there were originally two stages, it was only for a day and around 10,000 people were there.
“And now there are 250,000 people on three days and six stages,” he said, “But it’s still the best San Francisco music festival.”
Spor, a friend of Marglin, said he loves that the festival is free and that it’s rare to live in a big city that can find a way to put on such a big festival and still somehow manage to make it free.
Pamela Gerstein came from Haight Ashbury and got to see Dolly Parton play in 2005.
She said, “there’s so many legends that play here, it's insane, and it’s free.”
There are many creative souls that attend the festival, such as Laura Strand, who makes her own scrapbooks about the festival to add to her collection. She has a map of the festival, artists that she is planning to see throughout the three days, field notes, artwork, notes on bands she sees, and each day she makes a list of things she hears sees, and does.
Strand has been attending for 16 or 17 years, and came from East Sacramento for the festival. She loves to discover new artists and has noticed that the artists get younger as the traditional bluegrass artists have passed along.
“It opens up space for new and broader musical forms,” she said, “I will do it every year that I possibly can.” She also mentioned the fact that the festival is free makes the two hour drive down worth it because of the richness the festival offers, as well as what the artists offer.
Jonny V attended for his 2nd year and came from Berkeley. When asked if the festival’s free admission was a factor in why he returned, he stated, “Absolutely.”
He said that music can be expensive to access now, and makes it hard for people to afford festivals if they are expensive or inaccessible. He said it’s an important thing for the festival to be free.
Jonny was juggling amongst a few people dancing, and said, “I met a lot of jugglers here, and I think there’s a lot of unique hobbies that people can find similarity through.”
Sarah Petrakis came from Napa to attend the festival for her second year. Her partner works the event and that’s how she found out about it.
“I love that it’s in the park, so it's a beautiful scenery all around you, and it’s free,” she said, “I think that’s why a lot of people are here, it’s something in this expensive age that we’re living in [where] you can go and have this much of a good time for absolutely free.”
Manuel Robalino, is a photographer from Pacifica, attending for his eighth or ninth year. He stated his reason for returning is because he loves the energy from the festival and the overall vibe — he enjoys people watching for his photography.
He also mentioned that the festival being free is definitely a factor for why he has returned. He even said he wouldn’t attend Outside Lands due to its really expensive price, and because of the different crowd.