The Haight Street Art Center is pleased to present The Big Twang! Hardly Strictly Bluegrass at 25, opening on September 11 and running through October 12, 2025.

As a companion to the exhibition, on September 20, the Haight Street Art Center will co-host a special event with Hardly Strictly Bluegrass featuring live-music by Yoseff Tucker and the Bow Ties to celebrate the publication of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass at 25: The Big Twang! Special guests and panel discussion as well! Doors open at 3:30, panel discussion from 4:00-5:00, live music from 5:00-6:00. This handsome new coffee-table book features photographs by Jay Blakesberg and others, a foreword by Emmylou Harris, an afterword by Steve Earle, and interviews and essays by Aidin Vaziri, Frances Dinkelspiel, Sylvie Simmons, and Tricia Hellman Gibbs.

Panel will include:

Sheri Sternberg, who has been shaping the festival since its first year in Golden Gate Park as a co-founder of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.

Tricia Hellman Gibbs, MD, on the managing board of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, her family’s free music festival in San Francisco.

Jay Blakesberg, San Francisco based photographer, film maker and public speaker.

Frances Dinkelspiel, award-winning journalist and author.

Highlights of the exhibition that will also be on display that night include HSB founder Warren Hellman’s rhinestone jacket (made for him by his granddaughter Laurel Hellman in 2011), as well as his beloved banjo; key posters from HSB concerts over the years (a number of which have been signed by scores of performers); the festival’s famous penny machine; and dozens of photographs capturing faces in the crowd by documentary photographer and filmmaker Lizzy Myers.

Yoseff Tucker and the Bow Ties

The Big Twang!

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass at 25 - Book Launch, Live Music and Panel at Haight Street Art Center