Emmylou Harris performs at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Calif. on Sunday October 4, 2009.
By the time Emmylou Harris closed out the free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 9 festival in Golden Gate Park with her traditional Sunday night set, it was safe to say the organizers saw the record-breaking crowds they expected and then some.
As the silver-haired songwriter sang a luminous "Easy From Now On" to the setting sun, there were faces as far as the eye could see - beaming, content and, well, just plain tired.
It was impossible to measure exactly how many people came out to experience this year's event, which offered continuous live music with more than 80 acts on six stages over the weekend, but it was a far cry from the intimate gathering of bluegrass die-hards who showed up for billionaire investment banker Warren Hellman's first party in the park nearly a decade ago - 750,000? Maybe more?
Unlike previous years, there wasn't much room for picnic blankets. Families that brought their kids and dogs - because this has always been a festival for kids and dogs - looked as if they regretted the decision the minute they stepped into the morass.
Some people even openly groused that the organizers should charge a nominal entrance fee just to filter out the array of park denizens who crawled out of the woods to be a part of the scene.
What kept it together was the music. It made putting up with the relentless wind, traffic snarls and lawn-chair turf battles worth it. There was good stuff happening everywhere - more than anyone could possibly handle.
Just walking on John F. Kennedy Drive on Sunday afternoon, you could take in Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys' patriarchal bluegrass sounds in Speedway Meadow, Mavis Staples' fiery rhythm and blues across the road at Marx Meadow, Galactic's blitzed-out funk and Marianne Faithfull's glorious rasp back-to-back in Lindley Meadow, and a bunch of unsanctioned street musicians along the way.
Harris showed up early Saturday morning - technically, her day off - to help Nashville guitarist Buddy Miller inaugurate the festival's new Towers of Gold Stage.
"Are you kidding? I wouldn't miss this for the world," she said afterward. "There's so much great music, and it's a chance for us to get together and jam."
There were certainly plenty of moments to confirm Hardly Strictly's long-running communal spirit.
Booker T. jammed with the Drive-By Truckers on Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay." John Prine and Lyle Lovett shared the stage Friday. Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant made a surprise appearance with Miller. Old Crow Medicine Show and Harris joined Gillian Welch for a staggering take on the Band's "The Weight." Oh, and wasn't that Boz Scaggs slumming it in the dirt for Faithfull?
Meanwhile, in the main hospitality area Sunday, there was the rarest sighting of all: Banjo Stage performers Ralph Stanley, Del McCoury, Earl Scruggs and Doc Watson - the pillars of the genre the festival was created to celebrate - sharing a laugh with Hellman, the man who made it all possible.
"That's the history of bluegrass right there," said Jay Blakesberg, a veteran San Francisco rock photographer who has probably seen it all, taking a step back. "What more do you need?"
Not much, except perhaps for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 10.