Hardly Strictly Bluegrass's Massive 2017 Lineup Just Dropped

Article by: Laura Mason|@masonlazarus

Tue September 12, 2017 | 11:45 AM


America's best free music festival is back. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival , held in San Francisco's lush Golden Gate Park, just announced its 2017 lineup and it's a smorgasbord of talent tantalizing for fans of twangy country, blues and bluegrass, but also (true to its name), rock, pop, and punk.

Set to delight the more than 700,000 revelers who will flock to the park the weekend of October 6-8, 2017, are pop icon Randy Newman, Billy Bragg and Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, punk legend Henry Rollins, Cheap Trick, acclaimed indie duo Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett, Swedish folk band First Aid Kit, rising country star Sturgill Simpson, freewheeling Latin rockers Ozomatli, English psychedelic rocker Robyn Hitchcock, Dead Kennedys' former frontman Jello Biafra, alt rock hero Bob Mould, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, outsider songwriting icon John Prine, New Orleans bounce star Big Freedia, and even Afrobeat stars Seun Kuti & Egypt 80.

For those with more traditional Americana on the brain, regulars like Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, T Bone Burnett, Dry Branch Fire Squad, Laurie Lewis, Buddy Miller, the Go To Hell Man Clan, Moonalice, Gillian Welch and Conor Oberst have your back. Behold the full lineup below.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2017 Lineup

The festival's website notes that there's no schedule yet, but shortly before the festival begins, "we will share the detailed artist/stage/day schedule along with a print-at-home kit and online/mobile scheduler."

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival 2016 Kristina Barevski   01

As usual, there is something for everyone at this completely admission- and sponsor-free festival (it was a gift to the city by the late philanthropist and hardcore music lover Warren Hellman). San Franciscans and people from all over the Bay Area and beyond cherish Hardly Strictly as their annual opportunity to chill in the park all day with friends and family, lazing about on blankets and chairs, bottles and snacks in hand, and fresh tunes you've never heard but already love wafting through the autumn breeze.

See you in the park! The festival runs from October 6-8, 2017, and music lasts from 11 am (12 noon on Friday) until 7 pm. Find all the action in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, across Hellman Hollow, and Marx and Lindley Meadows.