Meet Stephanie Leilani Casillas, a 19-year-old third-year journalism major at San Francisco State University (who turns 20 on Halloween!). Stephanie is a proud Mexican student and the first in her family to pursue journalism. She is a dedicated, hardworking reporter who loves being put on the front lines to do coverage—whether she’s covering local community issues like homelessness in the SoMa district or reporting from the grounds of a major music festival.

This past weekend was her second time attending Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and what stood out to her most while reporting were the individuals she interviewed, who were extremely sweet and patient with her.

Below is Stephanie’s article, lightly edited for grammar, punctuation and factual accuracy while preserving her original reporting and voice.

Stephanie Casillas
Reporting location: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Golden Gate Park

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is a three-day music festival that took place Oct. 2-4 in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. This festival was founded by Warren Hellman, and it first started in 2001 when it only had two stages and took place for just one day. The now 25-year-old festival is still free and remains without any corporate sponsors. John Caldon, the Executive Director of the festival, stated that the ethos of the festival is that they remain without any corporate sponsors, as well as stating, “We really lean into the hardly of it all.” John even said, “We are aggressively free.”

How far do you think people will travel for a free festival?

After conducting 12 interviews, I found that people would actually travel just for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, even taking two flights just to make it for the three-day festival. Dory Mande has only been attending for two years, but stated her reasoning behind traveling all the way from Cape Town, South Africa is because of love, and, “the freedom of movement and wide choice within a limited kind of genre of music, and like-minded people.”

Mande loves the festival so much she stated that if it weren’t free, she would pay for it. Her first flight was from Cape Town to New York, which was a 14-hour flight. From New York she took a flight down to California just for the festival. She stated, “I will do it again, and again.”

The love for the festival has spread even outside of the U.S. with Dory Mande traveling all the way from Cape Town, South Africa. John Caldon, the Executive Director of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, stated, “Warren jokingly called it his selfish gift.”

One of the attendees, Ron Hill, mentioned it was amazing that Warren funded the festival during his lifetime and that it has continued even afterwards.

Hill stated, “When it ends I’ll be really sorry because there’s a lot of people that won’t be able to experience it then.” Hill has been attending for around 12 or 13 years and came from Winters, Calif. He mentioned that he would pay to attend the festival, but because it is free, it’s another part of the vibe.

Living during a time where prices have increased for being able to attend festivals or concerts, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is one that stands out, especially in San Francisco.

Michael Hartman has been attending the festival for five years and explained his reasoning behind coming back every year.

“It’s so much fun, restores my faith in humanity,” said Hartman.

He also mentioned the festival is absolutely worth it and traveled in an RV all the way from San Diego. Michael mentioned that the festival being free is definitely a factor in why he attends the festival because he would rather not pay $800 for attending all three days of the festival.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass brings in people from all over. This is a rough map of where the 12 people I spoke to are from.

The festival brings in people who have been attending since the start and people who are attending for their first year. David Marglin, going by Bacchus, is located in Russian Hill, San Francisco; he has been attending ever since the start of the festival. Bacchus stated he has been attending since it was first named “Strictly Bluegrass” and he attended in 2003 when they first added the “Hardly” to the Strictly Bluegrass.

He has noticed a huge change since he first started attending. He mentioned there were originally two stages, it was only for a day and around 10,000 people were there. Bacchus said, “And now there are 250,000 people on 3 days and 6 stages.” He then said, “but it’s still the best San Francisco music festival.”

Pamela Gerstein came from Haight Ashbury and got to see Dolly Parton play in 2005. She stated, “there’s so many legends that play here, it’s insane, and it’s free.”

Spor, Pamela Gerstein’s boyfriend and a friend of Bacchus, said he loves that the festival is free and that it’s rare to live in a big city and find a way to put on such a big festival and still make it free.

There are many creative souls that attend the festival, such as Laura Strand, who makes her own scrapbooks to add to her collection on the festival; she has a map of the festival, artists that she is planning to see throughout the three days, field notes, artwork, notes on bands she sees, and each day she does a list of things she heard, saw, and did.

Strand has been attending for 16 or 17 years and came from East Sacramento for the festival. She loves to discover new artists and has noticed that the artists get younger as the traditional bluegrass artists have passed along.

She said, “it opens up space for new and broader musical forms.” She also said, “I will do it every year that I possibly can.” She also mentioned the fact that the festival is free makes the two-hour drive down worth it because of the richness the festival offers, as well as what the artists offer.

Jonny V was attending for his 2nd year and came from Berkeley to attend the festival. When asked if the festival being free is a factor in why he returned, he stated, “Absolutely.”

He mentioned music can be expensive to access now, making it hard for people to afford festivals if they are not accessible or priced too high.

Jonny was juggling amongst a few people dancing and said, “I met a lot of jugglers here, and I think there’s a lot of unique hobbies that people can find similarity through.”

Sarah Petrakis came from Napa, Calif. to attend the festival for her 2nd year. Her partner works the event and that’s how she found out about it.

She stated, “I love that it’s in the park, so it’s a beautiful scenery all around you, and it’s free.” When asked if the festival being free is why she also attended, she stated, “I think that’s why a lot of people are here, it’s something in this expensive age that we’re living in, you can go and have this much of a good time for absolutely free.”

Manuel Robalino is a photographer, attending for his 8th or 9th year, coming from Pacifica, Calif. He stated his reason behind returning is because he loves the energy from the festival and the overall vibe. He enjoys people watching for his photography.

He also mentioned that the festival being free is definitely a factor in why he has returned. He even said he wouldn’t attend Outside Lands due to its really expensive price and because of the different crowd.

Overall the festival goers agree that the festival being free plays a huge role in why they attend every year. The ones who are traveling from far away say the long drives to the festival are very worth it and they would do it every year for as long as they can. They all love the energy from the festival goers and the energy that comes from the crowds and artists during performances. The festival continues to bring in people attending for their first time and people attending for their fifth year or more. These people travel from all over, including outside the U.S.