How often in this era do we have free music events like was common in the 1970s? Weather was mostly marine overcast mid 60F's temperatures. Perfect weather for people to get rowdy with dancing and moving lest they feel slightly cool. By the end of the day, the 6 stages in 6 large grassy meadows were 110% full of people with an amazing lively vibe. I'd been to previous HSB's and never seen as huge of crowds that is no doubt the result of pent up demand since the pandemic eliminated the 2020 and 2021 events. People of all ages with huge numbers of younger groups coming in over the last 3 hours of the 8 hours of music. This free music festival evokes a bygone San Francisco ... Hardly Strictly, set in Golden Gate Park, is financed by the late investment banker Warren Hellman and thus free for attendees, Portola could have taken place in any city in the world (and next year it just might), but Hardly Strictly couldn’t have happened anywhere but San Francisco. (dates were 9/30, 10/1, 10/2) Music festivals are a young person’s game, but this was an exception. It has been years since I, at 38 years old, felt so youthful in a large crowd. On my way to the park, the Panhandle looked like an advertisement for kid cargo bikes. Never in my life have I seen so many people over the age of 60 smoking weed. The average tie-dye T-shirt at the fest was older than most of the people who attended Outside Lands. I imagine some of these elders might've been in attendance when Jimi Hendrix played a free show in Golden Gate Park 55 years ago. Seeing so many enthusiastic older music fans flocking to a cultural event warmed my jaded heart. SF Chronicle >>> "...In total, organizers estimate more than 500,000 people will have gone through festival gates over the three-day event." Friday's crowd weekday crowd was smallest say 100,000. Sunday was less than Saturday, maybe 175,000, so Saturday's huge crowd was maybe an amazing 225,000. I mean there were a whole lot of fun smiling people. more images: The best photos from Hardly Strictly Bluegrass