This year’s HSB Festival is a landmark one for two reasons. One — the lineup, headlined by Robert Plant, Kurt Vile, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, among others, is one of the strongest in recent memory. Two — there will be an actual security presence for the first time this year, complete with checkpoints, fencing and a list of items you can’t bring. I’ve heard a bunch of opinions online about the latter, and regardless of how you feel about the increased security, it’s a still a free festival that I’m grateful towards the Hellman Foundation for producing. Here are a couple of last second tips on maximizing your experience this year and who to check out during the early afternoon.

Arrive Early: For HSB veterans this one is a no-brainer, but it still needs to be said. Doors are at 9 am this year, with music kicking off at noon on Friday and 11 on Saturday and Sunday. The area anywhere near most of the stages fills up with blankets and chairs quickly — that’s always been the case, especially during the weekend. It’s hard to say how much time it’ll take to get through the new security checkpoints — but considering this will be a new thing and many attendees likely won’t be prepared for the new policies(such as the clear bag one) — I assume it could be significant, especially later in the afternoon. Entrance #4(pictured below) may be the least crowded If you do arrive later in the day, but keep in mind it’s a bit of a walk from there to any of the stages, due to the fencing limiting your paths. I have the HSB app installed and would hope that they’d send a push notification if an entrance becomes overly clogged.

Pack Strategically: Bring multiple clear plastic bags with food, water, wine, beer, hats, blankets and sunscreen. Don’t even think about bringing a cooler, hard liquor, glass containers, or a non-collapsible wagon. Chairs are allowed — but nothing disrespectfully high, per the listed policy. If your chair is in the grey-zone and you don’t want to risk having to find a good bush to store it under by the security gate, maybe leave it at home. A full list of policies can be found here.

Towers of Gold Stage 2018

Lineup Recs

The Waterboys * Friday * 2:55–3:55 * Swan Stage

For Friday attendees looking for some rock, check out Mike Scott’s British-Irish folk rock band that has been touring world-wide, on and off, for around 30 years. Their sound jumps between “Big Music”, folk/Celtic folk, and rock, depending on song selection. They don’t come to SF too often, and when they do tickets are relatively expensive — tickets are $50 pre-fees for their Friday night show at the Fillmore. With that, I view this as one of the few chances I’m going to get to see these guys.

Tank and The Bangas * Saturday * 2:10–3 * Towers of Gold Stage

My personal favorite from this lineup as a whole. Their music is an emotional, silly, energetic mix of hip-hop, poetry, story-telling, jazz, gospel, funk and occasionally rock. Known best for unanimously winning the 2017 Tiny Desk Contest — they’ve been selling out shows and playing festivals across the country since. Last time I saw them they closed out their set with a wild cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” that had the crowd jumping throughout. Get to this set early.

Dakhabrakha * Sunday * Sunday * 1:20–2 * Porch Stage

A Ukrainian folk quartet that is hard to box into a genre. Plenty of percussion, bass, strings and harmonies. Their music can be folky, psychedelic, theatrical, hip-hop and world-beat influenced, and traditional. Based mainly on the style of their male vocalist, they often remind me of Modest Mouse. I’m heartbroken that I won’t be able to attend the festival this day, and will be forced to miss the most unique booking of the fest. Please let me know how they are if you catch their set. There are huge conflicts all day Sunday, but if you’re a fan of world music you could do a lot worse than camping out at the Porch Stage for Dakhabrakha -< Y La Bamba -< Mdou Moctor.

Enjoy the fest, and as always, respect your fellow music lovers.