MF #6
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2014
Date
October 4th, 2014
Location
San Francisco, California
Reason
Fun
Festivals are fun, but they are expensive. My Firefly ticket was hundreds of dollars. Add in travel + camping supplies + food + drinks + days off work, it quickly gets expensive. As a broke college kid, most music festivals were out of reach.
Luckily, the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival is completely free. Billionaire Warren Hellman gifted the city of San Francisco an endowment to host the Hardly Strictly Festival every year, something he referred to as “the world’s most selfish gift.” All are welcome at Golden Gate Park. There are no security checks, making it the perfect event for the broke college student. You can bring your own beer, food, and snacks. We all took the CalTrain there and back. One of my friends brought a flask full of wine. The sun was shining in San Francisco. It was a good day.
The highlight of the show was Deltron 3030 performing the hit Gorillaz song Clint Eastwood. The majority of the crowd near me was sitting on blankets. When that beat came on, I joined the crowd that stood up and started moving forward looking to dance. The show transformed from a casual afternoon sit-down to a full-on dance party in just a few seconds. For $0, Hardly Strictly is well worth the trip.