Warren Hellman, an American private equity investor who wanted to establish a festival for blue grass music, collaborated with Sheri Sternberg and Dawn Holliday to produce the festival, which eventually became the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.
F. Warren Hellman (July 25, 1934  December 18, 2011) was an American private equity investor and co-founder of Hellman & Friedman, a multibillion-dollar private equity firm. He started and funded the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. 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. 
