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The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival is living up to its name as it announces this year’s lineup, which includes Elvis Costello and Patti Smith.

The free festival will take place October 5-7 in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco this year, and welcomes an extensive and eclectic lineup this year. Among many notable acts appearing at the festival this year are Conor Oberst, Todd Snider, Nick Lowe, Jenny Lewis, Les Claypool, Emmylou Harris, Dwight Yoakam, Glen Hansard, Justin Townes Earle, Robyn Hitchcock, Lucero and Patterson Hood & the Downtown Rumblers. Not bad for a free show!

The festival began in 2001 as the Strictly Bluegrass Festival, and appropriately invited only bluegrass musicians to perform. By 2004, the festival was inviting musicians from many genres and added the word “Hardly” to the official name of the festival.

Despite the huge lineup, there will be some notable absences in this year’s lineup. Both Doc Watson and Earl Scruggs performed at nearly every incarnation of the festival since 2005, and both recently passed away. Additionally, the founder of the festival, Warren Hellman, also passed away in December of last year.

The following is a bit about Hellman posted on the official website of the festival:

“What does move me is the philanthropic stuff,” he told Forbes magazine in 2006. “Giving really does move me. Part of it is selfish. It’s fun to be appreciated. But the other part is that good things really are growing.”

He called the bluegrass festival a “selfish gift,” one that he, the musicians and the community could all enjoy.

“How could you have more fun that that? What the hell is money for if it isn’t for something like that?”

The festival will consist of multiple stages set up throughout the Hellman Hollow, Lindley & Marx Meadows in Golden Gate Park.