Hardly Strictly Bluegrass will open its 2026 festival weekend with a tribute concert honoring Steve Earle, one of the free San Francisco music festival’s most enduring performers.
Billed as a benefit, the concert is scheduled for Oct. 1, at the Masonic in San Francisco and is expected to feature Earle alongside Buddy Miller, Elizabeth Cook, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Jackson Browne, Hot Tuna, Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, Molly Tuttle, Shawn Camp, Stacey Earle and Victoria Williams.
The star-studded event will serve as the kickoff to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, which is set to return to Golden Gate Park from Oct. 2-4. The three-day festival remains free, with the full lineup expected to be announced at a later date.
The tribute doubles as a celebration of Earle’s long connection to Hardly Strictly. The singer-songwriter has performed at every edition since the event’s second year in 2002, making him one of its defining regulars.
Miller will serve as musical director for the Oct. 1 concert, along with Reckless Kelly and pedal steel guitarist Greg Liesz.
“We can think of no better way to bookend our silver anniversary than celebrating 25 years of Steve Earle at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass,” Executive Producer Sheri Sternberg said in a statement. “We are so fortunate to have legacy artists like Emmylou and Steve who have embraced our annual gathering since the beginning.”
Now in its second year, Sternberg said it all started with the festival wanting to recognize those artists with concerts benefiting charities important to them.
Earle’s benefit will support Sweetwater Spectrum, a Sonoma nonprofit residential community for adults with autism and similar intellectual or developmental disabilities.
Tickets for the Masonic concert are scheduled to go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Friday, June 12.
Earle, 71, is a three-time Grammy winner whose work has moved across country, folk, rock, bluegrass and Americana. His best-known songs include “Guitar Town” and “Copperhead Road,” and his albums “The Revolution Starts Now,” “Washington Square Serenade” and “Townes” each won Grammy Awards.
His relationship with Hardly Strictly reflects the festival’s own evolution from a bluegrass-focused event into a broader celebration of American roots music and adjacent genres. Founded by the late Warren Hellman in 2001, the festival has become one of San Francisco’s signature free cultural events, drawing large crowds to Golden Gate Park each fall.