Warren Hellman, who wanted to establish a festival for blue grass music, sold the idea for a $100,000 to Sheri Sternberg and Dawn Holliday, who then produced the festival Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.
He started and funded the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. Conceived and subsidized by San Francisco venture capitalist Warren Hellman, the festival has been held every year since the first event in 2001. From its outset, the festival has been subsidized by Hellman. Various corporations have offered to sponsor the event over the years, but Hellman always turned them down, saying in an interview, "I want to keep it entirely free and noncommercial". Nelson had worked for Bill Graham Presents, and introduced Hellman to booking agent and executive producer Dawn Holliday, and production manager Sheri Sternberg at a lunch. Holliday and Sternberg agreed to help and would continue to produce the festival, respectively, each year thereafter. 
