Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival

posted September 21, 2010 11:03 AM | |

Sat October 2 at 12:00 PM, Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA, USA (Map & Directions)

Well, we're certainly going to be there! Both days. And depending on who's doing the Friday afternoon gig, that too.

One potential complication: people will want to see different bands at different stages. Some/many will overlap. So how do we pick a spot?

Here's the lineup and rough schedule so far.
posted by rtha at 1:55 PM on September 21, 2010

Ah, good point - that did not occur to me. Is there a main stage? If so, perhaps we could set set up a mothership at a main stage that people can, uh, dock at or...launch...from...as necessary?

Yeah, that metaphor came out cheesy.
posted by superquail at 3:59 PM on September 21, 2010

This is the map (.pdf) from last year. There are six stages; I think the main one, if I've got myself oriented properly, is the Arrow stage.
posted by rtha at 4:19 PM on September 21, 2010

I typically have to work. Boo. Also, HSB tends to be insanely crowded. INSANELY.

Maybe post show drinks, if people aren't too wiped?
posted by mollymayhem at 11:44 PM on September 21, 2010

I've been to HSB every single year so far. Back in the day it wasn't very crowded and quite easy to bounce from one stage to another. Now the event is pretty much a clusterfuck and going to catch a band at a different stage takes quite a bit of time (as of two years ago they added chain link fence and a crossing guard between meadows making it twice as long to get across). Once there it will be hard to find a spot to sit, let alone see the band.

I can also attest to the fact that finding people on the move is pretty much impossible. You'll be texting all day and still never meet up.

I suggest that some of us show up early and stake out a LARGE spot in front of the Banjo stage (which I believe is the main stage). We should also bring a highly visible marker of some sort (example: Little e's pink unicorn on a flag pole) so we other mefites can easily find us. That way people who want to venture out for food/other bands can always come back to a spot where there is room to sit and actually see the band. After all the grar with moving between stages, I'm happy to stay put at one stage per day.
We should also picnic and bring a ton of booze.

and most of y'all have my # right?

[back to retirement...]
posted by special-k at 8:33 PM on September 23, 2010

Urgh, this is why local knowledge is key. Saturday will be harder for me, as my parents are in town...again...and have arranged mandatory family activities that day.

I would also be quite happy to spend my Sunday sitting around taking up space in front of the main stage. With booze and foods. I recently banned myself from random baking, so am looking forward to the opportunity to dust off the stand mixer!

Did Little e's unicorn make it back from Burning Man okay? Can we impale it on a stick?
posted by superquail at 11:18 PM on September 23, 2010

I recently banned myself from random baking

what
posted by rtha at 6:32 AM on September 24, 2010

I'm a maybe - I have friends in town that weekend and I don't yet know our plan, although I know we'll most likely be there at some/various points all three days.
posted by hapax_legomenon at 10:23 AM on September 24, 2010

I recently banned myself from random baking

what

Random baking = baking without a specific reason = guzzling a lot of pastries and cakes = consumption of ~2 sticks of butter weekly = problematic.
posted by superquail at 10:45 AM on September 24, 2010

I was thinking about this over the weekend and this seems like a sort of logistical nightmare. I didn't realize how big and crowded this was likely to be, so I may kill it. Bah. Nevertheless, we should do another outdoor meetup soon.
posted by superquail at 9:38 AM on September 27, 2010