San Francisco Local Custom Tips by mindcrime

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I’ve heard about this huge bluegrass festival that took place for 2 days in Golden Gate Park. And the best part of it? It was entirely free!!! From the other side this is bad too because more than 500,000 people invade the huge park! Plan a head which bands you want to listen though because there are several different stages and the festival is full of people so it’s not that easy to walk from one stage to the other. Although we had a printed map (they give it online as pdf file) we got lost at first between the weird (for us) names of the stages:Porch, Banjo, Arrow, Rooster, Star, Tower’s.

Some blankets and sunblock are helpful throughout the day. Choose a stage and stay there enjoying the music and the mellow vibes around. The area was full of food & beverage kiosks (pic 4) but you can bring your own of course like most of the people do. I saw families having picnic, later the smell of pot filled the air, just in case it bothers you…

We enjoyed many bands some famous, some other we never heard of. There were about 80 bands!! Emmylou Harris, Little Feat, Allison Moorer, Mavis Staples, Marianne Faithful (pic 2), Neko Case, Billy Joe Shaver, Steve Earle were some of them… Check my short video about it here

After 16.00 it gets chilly but if a good jacket and an extra bottle of wine will help… The long lines for the WC will lead you sooner or later in the bushes. If you find a good alternative drop me a message. :)

After the festival end, hordes of people tried to get into buses, it was impossible, we preferred to walk a few blocks north to find one. There were people waiting there too! At the end we decided to get into a bus that was going towards the Pacific! Good idea! We were relaxed, reached the ocean and then returned back comfortable and nice :)