Chris Porter knows what he’s up against in creating festival lineup

“Talent buyer” is a crass title for what is really a maestro at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. The job involves booking 81 bands to satisfy a cross section of audiences, then assigning each band to one of six stages in the right order.

Since the start, that job was handled by Dawn Holliday, a force so strong that even the late Warren Hellman, who paid for the free three-day outdoor festival in Golden Gate Park, would tread very lightly in recommending a band for her to book.

Now Holliday has stepped back to work as a consultant, and the pressure falls on Chris Porter, a veteran Seattle concert and festival booker. He was hired after a nationwide search uncovered a dozen worthy candidates.

Porter, 52, works remotely, but on a recent trip to San Francisco for produc-

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass:

Noon-7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5; 11 a.m.-7 p.m. SaturdaySunday, Oct. 6-7. Free. Hellman Hollow, Marx and Lindley meadows in Golden Gate Park, S.F. www.hardlystrictlyblue grass.com

tion meetings, he sat in the balcony at the Great American Music Hall to discuss what he has gotten himself into.

Q: Where did you grow up?

A: Lowell, Mass. I was very into Jack Kerouac. I feel like in a way I am following his road, Lowell to San Francisco. I’m working on a festival there called the Town and the City Festival, named after Kerouac’s first book.

Q: First concert?

A: The Ramones with the Jim Carroll Band at an outdoor show in 1982 or ’83. Q: Were you one of those kids who booked college concerts?

A: I wanted to be in radio. I was the music director at the college station at UMass Lowell. But then I got a gig booking two nights a week at a club near (Boston University). That was in 1990. I saw that there was an art to putting these cool bills together. To this day, whether we are talking about 200 people or 20,000 people, when you look down and see that you brought this sea of people together, there is no better feeling.

Q: How did you get this job?

A: I’ve been working in festivals for 21 years. I was the booker for Bumbershoot in Seattle for about 18 of those years. I’ve known Sheri Sternberg (Hardly Strictly Bluegrass’ executive producer) for a long time.

Q: Have you been to HSB before? A: I’ve only been to one. It was when Alison Krauss and Robert Plant headlined (2008). The huge one.

Q: What makes HSB different from other music festivals?

A: The most obvious thing is that it’s free. It’s this gift to San Francisco. People who travel here are still awestruck that it’s free. I come from booking festivals where there is a ticket, so it’s odd for me not to have to worry about that. It’s the only festival of its size that I can think of that is free.

Q: How will you put your stamp on it?

A: By who I end up booking. I understand the aesthetics of this festival. It obviously has an Americana leaning, but there is plenty of “hardly” in Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. I want to make sure that it feels fresh every year. I hope to bring in a lot of acts that haven’t played (HSB yet) but would be a great fit.

Q: What is the first name you put on the whiteboard?

A: It was a band that didn’t come through: Fleet Foxes. Couldn’t work out the timing. The second name was Roky Erickson. He was the leader of a band called the 13th Floor Elevators in the ’60s. He’s a living legend in the garage rock vein. (5:40-6:45 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 7, on the Rooster Stage)

Q: Why do Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris have to play every single year?

A: The Hellman family very much loves those artists. They are part of the fabric of what Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is about.

Q: What is the input from the Hellman family?

A: They throw some ideas my way. They just want to understand what we are working on and be in the loop.

Q: Who would be on the Chris Porter Stage at HSB?

A: My taste is very wide. I’m a sucker for haunting music — Nick Cave, Robyn Hitchcock, Mark Lanegan — but I also love good vintage soul.

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle. com Instagram: sfchronicle_art