SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwire – September 29, 2010) – Today, The Bay Citizen and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass announced the launch of the “The Bay Citizen Bluegrass” trek on SCVNGR during the upcoming Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival from October 1^st through 3^rd. SCVNGR, the mobile social game, encourages festival goers to earn points by completing quick challenges like answering trivia questions, snapping pics, and checking in at different festival locations throughout Golden Gate Park to earn points and share with friends on Facebook, Twitter and SCVNGR.

The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival is an annual free concert series that typically attracts 800,000 visitors to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The festival is a gift to the city by local philanthropist Warren Hellman, who also provided seed funding for The Bay Citizen, a new nonprofit news organization that provides original reporting on San Francisco Bay Area civic and cultural news. This year, the festival celebrates its tenth anniversary.

Challenges for The Bay Citizen Bluegrass trek encourage participants to explore the festival, enjoy the performances, and get to know The Bay Citizen. For example, HSBG fans can snap a front-page worthy picture of the band on stage and score two points, or correctly answer a trivia question about The Bay Citizen for three points. Challenges are easily shared back out to friends on Facebook, Twitter and SCVNGR. Players who complete enough challenges will unlock a “Bay Citizen News” badge, which they can redeem for a Bay Citizen grab bag at the festival.

The grand prize for the player with the most points is something sure to incite desire in bluegrass fans — a guitar signed by Warren Hellman and his band The Wronglers. Other high scorers also have the chance to win a pair of tickets to any show at the Great American Music Hall or Slim’s, two iconic music landmarks in San Francisco; a year membership to The New York Times Crossword Society; or limited edition 10^th Annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival memorabilia.

“This interactive trek is a fun way for festival goers to explore mobile gaming, win amazing prizes, and get to know The Bay Citizen,” said Rose Roll, Director of Membership and Marketing at The Bay Citizen. “We’re all looking forward to getting our first trek underway with SCVNGR and can’t wait for the festival to kick off on Friday.”

“Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is one of the biggest bluegrass music festivals in the country and we’re stoked to be partnering up and adding some twang to our mobile game layer,” said SCVNGR CEO and Chief Ninja Seth Priebatsch. “The Bay Citizen Bluegrass trek is a way to experience this awesome festival in a whole new way. Any festival goer with an iPhone or Android can do these quick, fun challenges at the festival to engage and win cool stuff. It only takes a few seconds to do a challenge anywhere you go, so grab the app and get going!”

To play, grab the free SCVNGR app from the Android Market or Apple App Store. For more information visit baycitizen.org/scvngr.

About The Bay Citizen:
The Bay Citizen is a nonprofit, nonpartisan member-supported news organization that provides in-depth original reporting on Bay Area issues including public policy, education, the arts and cultural affairs, health and science, the environment, and more. The Bay Citizen’s news can be found online at www.baycitizen.org as well as in print in The New York Times’s Bay Area report on Fridays and Sundays. For more information, please visit www.baycitizen.org.

About SCVNGR:
SCVNGR is a game. Playing is simple: Go places. Do challenges. Earn points! You’ll unlock real-world rewards and share where you are and what you’re up to with your friends on SCVNGR, Facebook and Twitter. SCVNGR is played via a free iPhone & Android app. But playing SCVNGR is only half of it. Individuals, enterprises and small businesses build on SCVNGR by adding custom challenges and rewards at their locations. SCVNGR is funded by Google Ventures and Highland Capital Partners. Visit www.scvngr.com to learn more.