Photos by Mike Kirschner
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass—the annual free, three-day music festival at Golden Gate Park—each year presents a diverse range of music including its namesake bluegrass, but also a wide variety of American roots music like soul, rock, country, and folk. The festival’s lineup extends to other genres as well, with recent years including acts in funk, world music, and indie blues, and this year’s festival, for the big 25th anniversary, was no exception.
Festival regulars like Emmy Lou Harris and the psychedelic band Moonalice were on the schedule with newcomers like I’m With Her, Sinkane, Watchhouse, and even Scuff: Queer Line Dancing featuring the Eric Long Band.
The lineup always includes musical treasures—unexpected moments that are memorable and that often bring together multiple performers in collaborations that feel, and often are, spontaneous. One of these was the Celebration of Hazel Dickens, who was a lesbian and a relatively unknown (at least in the LGBTQ+ community) pioneering figure in folk and bluegrass music. The all-woman string band Della Mae joined forces with singer Laurie Lewis and Dickens’ longtime partner Alice Gerrard for this incredible, emotional set.
But there were many such moments at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2025. The festival remains free thanks to the late F. Warren Hellman and his wife Chris, who founded the festival and left an endowment for its continuation as a free event for all. https://hardlystrictlybluegrass.com/
Published on October 9, 2025
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