Richmond & Sunset

1. 11:00 AM Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, enter at Fulton St and 30th Ave — Saturday Oct 3. Gates open at 9 AM Saturday and Sunday, and at 11 AM on Friday. Music ends at 7 PM every day. It is free, with six stages across Hellman Hollow and Marx and Lindley Meadows. Fulton and 30th Ave is one of the published entrances, and JFK Drive at Transverse is another. We link KQED's guide because it has the maps, parking and bag policy on one page. Read the bag policy before you pack a blanket and food. Arriving two hours after gates open means the meadows will already be filling, so agree on a meeting point at the entrance, not 'by the stage.'
2. 11:00 AM–6:45 PM Six stages: Banjo, Swan, Towers of Gold, Rooster, Arrow and Horseshoe Hill — The lineup has 71 sets over three days. Mavis Staples, Los Lobos and My Morning Jacket are all playing at some point this weekend, but we have not matched any of them to a day, so do not plan Saturday around a name from us. Check the day's schedule in KQED's guide or the festival's own, choose two sets you both want to see, and spend the rest of the day moving between stages. The six stages are spread across three meadows, so pick your two sets with the walk between them in mind; the festival map in KQED's guide shows which stage is where.
3. 6:51 PM Sunset, with the last sets still going — Sunset on Saturday Oct 3 is 6:51 PM, from timeanddate's October table for San Francisco. Music runs until 7, so the last nine minutes of sets and the rest of the dusk happen while you are still in the meadow. The western end of the park is the side that fogs over first, so this is clear light only if the sky is clear. Leave at 7 with everyone else, or ten minutes before if you want a seat on the bus.
4. 7:45 PM Dinner at The Richmond, 615 Balboa St — Saturday dinner is 6 to 11 PM according to its listing as shown in search results. Confirm when you book, on OpenTable or by phone at (415) 379-8988. It serves a short seasonal Californian menu. From Fulton and 30th it is about 1.8 miles east, between 7th and 8th Ave. The 5 Fulton runs east along the park's north edge, so ride to 8th Ave and walk two blocks north to Balboa. A 7:45 booking gives you 45 minutes to get out of a festival crowd, which is not too much. Book before Saturday.

Why it lands: A free festival is easy to say yes to. There is no ticket to coordinate, and if the day isn't working, nobody has wasted money. This one also has a built-in shape: get there late morning, pick two sets together, wander between six stages, and the day ends at 7 on its own. After eight hours outside, a booked table across town is something to look forward to.

Weather backup: If Saturday is gone, Sunday Oct 4 has the same 9 AM gates and 7 PM finish, and Friday's gates open at 11. Sunday's sunset is about two minutes earlier. If you can't get a 7:45 table at The Richmond, book a later one: Saturday dinner runs to 11. The Castro play below is the other way to spend Sunday.