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It all began on a ski trip.
San Francisco venture capitalist Warren Hellman and old pal Jonathan Nelson, a former sound man for Bill Graham Presents, were out on the slopes when a crazy idea came up.
"I said to him, 'I've always had this fantasy of putting on a bluegrass festival,'"‰" Hellman recalls. "So, he said, 'Why don't you do it?' I said, 'I don't have any idea how to do it.' And he said, 'Well I've got two friends . . . '"‰"
Those two friends were Dawn Holliday, who books the music at San Francisco's Slim's and Great American Music Hall clubs, and Sheri Sternberg, who handles production work for many major local events. A lunch meeting was set, where the quartet made plans to put on the inaugural "Strictly Bluegrass" festival.
"I was positive that we could do it," Holliday remarks. "There was no reason on earth that we couldn't do a free festival in Golden Gate Park."
Good timing
Holliday was right, and the event debuted in 2001 to rave reviews from the estimated 13,000 fans in attendance.
But what no one could have predicted is what the festival would become.
This weekend's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass — the name changed in 2003 to reflect the inclusion of multiple music genres — is expected to draw as many as half a million people to Golden Gate Park's Speedway Meadow (in line with last year's attendance). It is one of nation's
The musical scope is equally enormous. The 2009 lineup will include some 80 acts, ranging from bluegrass titans Ralph Stanley and Del McCoury to to singer Emmylou Harris, to banjo-playing comedian Steve Martin, '60s rock icon Marianne Faithfull, British alt-rock icons Nick Lowe and Robyn Hitchcock, indie-rock critics' darling Aimee Mann, and even Hammer (yes that Hammer) and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, performing on six stages over three days, Oct. 2-4.
Humble beginnings
And, as always, it's free.
The inaugural one-day Strictly Bluegrass festival was a modest affair. Held Oct. 27, 2001, the concert lasted six hours and featured just two stages and nine acts, most of which were indeed "strictly bluegrass."
Hellman, a self-described "sucker for old-time music or traditional music" who has foot the bill for the festival since Day One, says he really didn't know how many people would show up the first year. Even with a lineup that boasted three legitimate headliners — Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss and Hazel Dickens — and the big selling point of free admission, Hellman was still conservative in projections.
"The day before the festival, I remember saying to Dawn, 'Do you think we will get four or five thousand people?'"‰" he recalls.
Yet, the timing was right to start a bluegrass fest. Thanks to the huge success of the 2000's "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" film soundtrack, "old-timey" music suddenly had become the coolest thing on the charts. Certainly, the fact that Harris and Krauss were featured on the "O Brother" CD factored into Hardly Strictly being able to draw more than 13,000 in its first year.
Seeing all the fans, and hearing all the great music, was such a rush, Holliday remembers, that Hellman began talking about the second annual Strictly Bluegrass before fans had left the first.
"We all had such a wonderful experience," Holliday says. "He got on stage, and unbeknown to us, announced, 'How about we do this again next year?' Then, he came offstage and said to us, 'I guess we are doing this again next year.'"‰"
Strictly Bluegrass 2 was bigger in every way. It featured some 30 acts, including Steve Earle, Hot Rize and Peter Rowan, performing on three stages over two days. The music ran for eight hours each day, before a crowd that numbered in the 40,000 range. At that point, the label "strictly bluegrass" was really no longer accurate — all kinds of traditional music acts, including country and folk, were featured.
Organizers amended the festival's title to "Hardly Strictly Bluegrass" in 2003. Holliday, who books the festival, has used that loophole to full advantage over the years and has conjured some fascinatingly eclectic lineups.
"Now, it's almost more 'hardly' than 'strictly,'"‰" says Hellman. The music "does, to a certain extent, all hang together. It's certainly far more acoustic than electric. And lively — we have very few maudlin performers. We have some mediocre performers, like my band."
Yes, Hellman is more than the event's benefactor, he's a performer. He'll take the stage to pluck a little banjo, quite admirably, with his band, the Wronglers, at 11 a.m. Saturday.
The festival seemed to double in size, in terms of attendance and performers, with each year. New for 2009 is a sixth stage.
"I actually no longer know how many people (attend)," says Hellman. "I don't know whether there are 500,000 people or 300,000 people or 700,000 people. There are a lot of people."
Indeed, Hellman says, there may even be too many people at the jam-packed festival, "but when I get there I love each and every one of them."
Nobody has a better time at this event than the guy who writes the checks. Hellman, who co-founded the San Francisco-based Hellman & Friedman private equity firm in 1994 and has been identified in some articles as a billionaire, won't say how much it costs him to put on the event. It's got to be a substantial sum — but one that Hellman says is well worth it.
"I guess I enjoy giving this to people more than I would enjoy buying some fancy painting or a house in the Bahamas," says Hellman, who gets particularly excited about getting to hang out at the event with such legends as Doc Watson and Ralph Stanley. "God, what else can you ask for? I keep calling it the world's most selfish gift."
Read Jim Harrington's Concert Blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/category/concerts/.
