Summer’s last big free outdoor show has a scheduling conflict: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

Closing out its summer series of free shows in and around downtown San Francisco, producer Another Planet Entertainment has announced the performers for its third installment: Don Louis and Sophia Scott.

The country artists will perform back-to-back Oct. 6 in Union Square. The afternoon event is called “Empire’s Bay & Boots,” a reference to both artists’ record label and their genre’s staple footwear. 

This will cap off a season of free shows that included a performance by alt-rockers Portugal. TheMan and a rave on the Embarcadero programmed by Dirtybird, the local label purchased by Empire in 2023. However, unlike those outdoor shows, the new date conflicts with an established San Francisco music festival: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. 

Held in Golden Gate Park’s Hellman Hollow, Hardly Strictly routinely draws 250,000 attendees a day over three days. The set times have been announced, meaning fans will have to choose between Empire’s Bay & Boots and Hardly Strictly heavy-hitters like Yo La Tengo and Emmylou Harris.

It’s been a big year for country music in San Francisco. This year’s Outside Lands — also an Another Planet production — was notable for including male country acts Sturgill Simpson, Post Malone, and Shaboozey. 

So it’s fitting that the producers would book the swaggering, full-throated Texan Louis. Six months after Beyonce’s smash album “Cowboy Carter” forged a path for Black artists in the historically white country genre, the up-and-comer’s R&B-inflected style is meeting the moment. 

For her part, Scott — a native of Nashville who lives and works in Los Angeles — blends Southern rock influences with ’90s-style country pop, writing lovelorn, confessional songs that have earned comparisons to Shania Twain.

These free outdoor shows grew out of a three-year agreement with the city in exchange for a second music festival in Golden Gate Park one week after Outside Lands. So Another Planet’s series of free outdoor shows will return in 2025 and 2026.