Ride Your Bike to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Music Festival 2024

Many bicycles crowded and parked close together on bicycles at the entrance of hardly strictly bluegrass festival in 2023 in golden gate park, san francisco. cargo bikes and ebikes too. — Crowded bike racks at the front of the self-park area in 2023. There are many more racks with plenty of space a little farther back.

So you’ve heard about this free music festival in Golden Gate Park, and you wanna know how to bike to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. With over half a million people attending over the 3 days, you know the buses will be crowded and the parking will be sparse. Thousands of people have already discovered that biking is the easiest way to get to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and fortunately for you there is plenty of capacity for all the bicyclists!

Imagine the wind in your hair (but not too loud), a speaker strapped to your rack with some pre-festival tunes, and the beautiful car-free JFK promenade gliding by you. If you’re thinking of riding your bike to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass this year, here are some tips to make it hassle free.

Hardly strictly bluegrass 2024 map with bike parking locations circled — The official 2024 Bike parking map. I added orange circles to make the bike parking more noticeable. Note: there’s only 3 official bike parking spots as opposed to 4 last year in 2023.

Know Where to Park Your Bicycle Safely for HSB 2024

There are 3 bike parking locations this year (as opposed to 4 last year in 2023). All of them near public entrances. Unfortunately there is no longer a personal bike valet at this event like there was in past years, but there will be a Bay Wheels valet and virtual station! More on that below.

This is a good time to make sure your bike security plan is ready. Carry a secure u-lock and keep your components locked (like your wheels and bike seat). You can lock your helmet to your bike or even try a foldable helmet!

Bicycle parking as far as the eye can see. The bike parking racks have bikes on them but have plenty of room for more bicycles. there's a mural on the ground of car-free jfk — Bike parking as far as the eye can see. This is near the back where there’s still plenty of room to park. Some people parked the dockless BayWheels bikes here…and might’ve gotten the $2 fee waived since there was a virtual BayWheels station here last year.

Ride a Bay Wheels Bikeshare Bike – Virtual Station & Bike Valet Provided

The BayWheels X account has confirmed with me that there will be both a virtual station (so dockless BayWheels electric bikes, the black ones can be parked without the $2 fee) and a bike valet for any other BayWheels bikes that aren’t dockless. The BayWheels valet and virtual stations will be right at entrance 1 on JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park like it’s been in previous years. They’ll operate it from 10am – 11pm Fri, Sat, Sun.

These extra accommodations make it easy to bikeshare with any type of BayWheels bike to the event and hopefully make it easy to acquire a bike for the ride home!

BayWheels electric ebike bicycles parked at a virtual bikeshare station at the entrance of hardly strictly bluegrass festival 2023 in golden gate park, san francisco — Dockless Baywheels bikes parked in the virtual station on JFK Drive right in front of the entrance to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2023. The self-parking area for personal bikes is just behind this virtual station.

Remember that grabbing a rideshare bike on the way home may be tough if you leave at the very end of the evening and all the other bikes are taken. You may end up taking a different form of transit home unless you stick around the neighborhood for a while.

If the bikeshare fails you, there are plenty of bikes to rent for the day or weekend around San Francisco if you do some searching, or some e-scooters!

Lime scooters and self-parked bicycles at the entrance of hardly strictly bluegrass festival in 2023 in golden gate park, san francisco — Lime scooters parked at the front of the bicycle self-park area in 2023.

Ride a Scootershare Lime or Spin Scooter

Last year in 2023 there was a virtual station for Lime scooters to be parked right at entrance 1 of Hardly Strictly as well. I’m not sure if Lime or Spin have any plans for this again, but check the app and maybe they’ll show a station on the map right here in front of the Hardly Strictly 2024 festival entrance.

people getting their bicycles during dusk at the end of hardly strictly bluegrass festival in 2023 in golden gate park, san francisco. Bike lights are on and shining red lights around the area. — Dusk is ending as people are gathering their bicycles for the ride home in 2023.

Don’t Forget Your Bike Lights!

The sun sets just as the last act ends, so if you stay until the end it will be dark on your ride home for sure. Bikeshare bikes and some rentals have lights included, but otherwise you should make sure to have bike lights on your way to the festival.

All the bike shops should be open on your ride there, so stop in at one of them to pick up some lights. The cheapest options usually run less than $20, especially if you just get a rear light. If you have enough time to order on Amazon, get some quick release bike lights, or dirt cheap lights that come with twice as many lights if you want to provide for a friend. My favorite front light is now this one from Portland Design Works, while any rear light that isn’t too bright to blind bicyclists behind you is great.

Enjoy the Ride Through Golden Gate Park

You know you’ve always been telling your friends you should do that bike ride through Golden Gate Park, but you haven’t ever gotten around to it. Well, now you can do that great bike ride down the car-free JFK promenade since you’re going to the festival anyway!

To find the best route from your part of town, check out my post on using Google Maps.

google map of route to golden gate park — An easy, flat route from Market Street through the Wiggle, Panhandle Park, JFK promenade and up to one of the bike parking locations!

Dust Off Your Rusting Bicycle

That bike you barely ride around the city. Now’s your chance to use it. Pump up those tires and take it for a spin.

You can even take your Burning Man bike that sits in your apartment basement waiting for that one time of the year. Have you cleaned it yet? If you haven’t it may not work next year. Cleaning it and riding it around will keep it riding well! And you should already have plenty of lights on it right?

If you decide this bike commute to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass was great and want to do it again, be sure to check out some of my other posts on securing your bike, avoiding obstacles on your bike, and other tips.

PS – Check out my previous version of this post if you want to see what biking to Hardly Strictly was like in 2019. They had a bike valet then! I wonder if we can get them to bring it back sometime.