Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival | Photo Album
![Crowd at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival](https://d1epjnee0y8w64.cloudfront.net/blog/s3fs-public/2018-10/Crowd%20at%20Hardly%20Strictly%20Bluegrass%20festival.jpg)
After so many years, I got to cross off one item off my bucket list last weekend in San Francisco by attending the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.
This is the 18th edition of a festival that drew over half a million people to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park to watch shows on 6 stages over 3 days. Folk, Roots, Americana, and Bluegrass are not exactly music genres one associates with crowds of that size! Past years have seen the audience swell to 750,000. It’s safe to say that California continues to be a cultural tastemaker!
The festival was founded by Warren Hellman, the late billionaire/philanthropist whose love of bluegrass and corresponding roots genres drove him to underwrite the festival as a gift to the city, rejecting all forms of commercial co-sponsorship along the way and securing it as a free event.
Most of the artists performing at the festival are in heavy rotation on our roots music channels:
![Crowd for Emmylou Harris](https://d1epjnee0y8w64.cloudfront.net/blog/s3fs-public/inline-images/Crowd%20for%20Emmylou%20Harris_0.jpg)
![Buddy Miller’s Cavalcade of Stars Featuring the McCrary Sisters, Tracy Nelson, Buddy Miller, Molly Tuttle, and The War and Treaty.](https://d1epjnee0y8w64.cloudfront.net/blog/s3fs-public/inline-images/Buddy%20Miller%E2%80%99s%20Cavalcade%20of%20Stars%20Featuring%20the%20McCrary%20Sisters%2C%20Tracy%20Nelson%2C%20Buddy%20Miller%2C%20Molly%20Tuttle%2C%20and%20The%20War%20and%20Treaty.%20%281%29_0.jpg)
![Courtney Marie Andrews](https://d1epjnee0y8w64.cloudfront.net/blog/s3fs-public/inline-images/Courtney%20Marie%20Andrews_0.jpg)
![Dustin and Kevin Welch](/sites/blog/files/inline-images/Dustin%20and%20Kevin%20Welch_0.jpg)
![Kacy and Clayton - Saskatchewan duo making big strides in the US folk and America scenes](/sites/blog/files/inline-images/Kacy%20and%20Clayton%20-%20Saskatchewan%20duo%20making%20big%20strides%20in%20the%20US%20folk%20and%20America%20scenes_0.jpg)
![Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets](https://d1epjnee0y8w64.cloudfront.net/blog/s3fs-public/inline-images/Nick%20Lowe%20and%20Los%20Straitjackets.jpg)
![Steve Earle](https://d1epjnee0y8w64.cloudfront.net/blog/s3fs-public/inline-images/Steve%20Earle.jpg)
![The Lone Bellow](https://d1epjnee0y8w64.cloudfront.net/blog/s3fs-public/inline-images/The%20Lone%20Bellow.jpg)
![The Wailin’ Jenny’s](https://d1epjnee0y8w64.cloudfront.net/blog/s3fs-public/inline-images/The%20Wailin%E2%80%99%20Jenny%E2%80%99s.jpg)
![Tim O’Brien](https://d1epjnee0y8w64.cloudfront.net/blog/s3fs-public/inline-images/Tim%20O%E2%80%99Brien_0.jpg)
![Trio featuring Sarah Jarosz, Sara Watkins, and Aoife O’Donovan](https://d1epjnee0y8w64.cloudfront.net/blog/s3fs-public/inline-images/Trio%20featuring%20Sarah%20Jarosz%2C%20Sara%20Watkins%2C%20and%20Aoife%20O%E2%80%99Donovan_0.jpg)
![The crowd for Wailin’ Jenny’s](https://d1epjnee0y8w64.cloudfront.net/blog/s3fs-public/inline-images/The%20crowd%20for%20Wailin%E2%80%99%20Jenny%E2%80%99s_0.jpg)
Learn more about the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.
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