As the calendar turns to October, the roots music festival season begins to wind down, so what better way to celebrate what the year 2022 has brought than to head west and visit the largest, most encompassing free festival there is: San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Conceived and subsidized by a local venture capitalist and banjo player, Warren Hellman, the festival began 2001. While various commercial interests frequently lobbied to sponsor the event, Hellman always turned them down. He also made provisions that upon his passing, in 2011, the festival would always concentrate on the music and remain free.