Your Inside Guide To Treefort Music Fest 2018

by Janeth Gonda

We are so excited to be attending the seventh annual Treefort Music Fest in Boise, Idaho! The festival, which can be compared to SXSW, spreads across the entire city of Boise, featuring over 450 bands in the best venues across the city. Throughout the five days, there is a number of things to do beyond seeing music including yoga, comedy, skateboarding, food, a beer fest, kids’ activities and more. With so much to do, it can be easy to get overwhelmed when deciding where to head, so we talked with Treefort Organizer Megan Stoll to get a taste of what is to come and some of her top picks for each day of the festival,

33156323444 af3d1790e5 z e8ed5Peter Lovera Photography

 How has the city of Boise responded to the festival? I can imagine it must be so awesome for the town’s economy and community.

The Boise community is a large part of why Treefort is so special. Boisians have embraced Treefort from the beginning. In fact, The City of Boise named Treefort Music Fest the city’s cultural ambassadors from 2015-2017, in which a grant accompanied the title, and we continue to work with them as Treefort and the City grows. We also continue to develop our relationship in many facets of our community, hence the various forts that have become part of the festival over the years — none of that would’ve been possible without key members of our community coming to us with ideas for involvement. Since Treefort started in 2012 our downtown landscape has changed dramatically — there are now more hotels downtown, more breweries, more late night eating establishments, etc. and while I don’t necessarily credit Treefort to that specifically, I certainly feel we had a splash in the overall growth. So, yes, there is an obvious economic impact that measures hotel accommodations, transportation costs, food and beverage consumption, retail activity etc, but what’s harder to define or put a price on is the economic value of our bottom-up, grassroots approach which carries *way* more intangible community value and translates to Boise’s momentum as a “best place to live / move to / set up shop.”

33171698073 51402957c8 k 3dd22Matthew Wordwell Photography Angel Olsen at Treefort 2017

 With so many amazing things going on at this festival ,what would say are some of the not to miss events? I myself am getting overwhelmed when trying to decide what to do!

I’m really excited about experiencing the magnitude and fierceness of so many badass women who are taking the spotlight at Treefort this year! If I could clone myself, I would, 10 times over, so I don’t miss a beat. Until that technology catches up with me, I’d recommend these few items….please note this is not a full list!

WED 3/21 9:50pm Neurolux — Zee Will: My friends and I saw him perform last year and became total groupies. We like his happy style, and I hear he’ll have a full band this year!

WED 3/21
11pm Neurolux — Big Dipper: Find me Vibin’ on the dance floor into the wee hours, as he’s doing a DJ set later that night (same spot, which has super stiff and cheap drinks).

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THU 3/22 12pm Owyhee: Storyfort programming piece Girl Boner: Sexual Empowerment with August McLaughlin

THU 3/22 12:30am Neurolux — Kelly Lee Owens: this lady seems pretty fucking dope (Read about her work with sound headling here.)

FRI 3/23 4:45 Main Stage — Lido Pimienta: This woman is incredible performer and artist. I saw her perform in Canada at Halifax Pop Explosion and she requested all the women of color and trans women in the audience to come to the front, then the white women, then the men in the back. I love her.

FRI 3/23 12:30am Adelmann — Matthew Dear: I’m super fucking excited about this DJ set.

33958287696 8ddb4eeb87 z a0549Peter Lovera Photography

SAT 3/24 3:10pm Rhodes Skatepark — Abhi The Nomad playing live while kids and adults (both amateurs and professionals) skate at our awesome skate park. Actually, the entire Skatefort lineup is pretty tight (and totally free!)

SAT 3/24 4:45pmThe FlicksClara’s Ghost: A full-length feature from Bridey Elliot (Chris Elliot’s daughter). I saw this at Sundance with my mom and would totally watch it again.

SAT 3/24 10:45pm at Knitting Factory — Rapsody: I’m also from NC and have been digging her style .

SAT 3/24
11:45-12:00am Shrine — Pussy Riot cause, duh.

33983353185 f5e6109c5c k 1 6f6a3Matthew Wordwell Photography Lizzo at Treefort 2017

SUN 3/25 10am — Bittercreek: Catch Karl Blau doing a brunch set at this second chance venue, and I have a feeling it will be pretty special.

SUN 3/253pm Owyhee — IHC 1NFINITY‘s music video collection. This should definitely be trippy.

SUN 3/257:30pm Main Stage — Jamila Woods: I saw her at Pitchfork Music Festival last year and have been listening ever since.

SUN 3/259pm Main Stage — Princess Nokia: I cannot wait to be in the crowd with all my ladies. I hope she stage dives/crowd surfs, too!

SUN 3/2512:30am Neurolux — Rituals of Mine DJ set to close out the festival!

For a full list of things to do at this year’s Treefort 2018, check out the lineup here. And to make things even easier for you, we created this playlist featuring some of our favorite artists in this year’s lineup.

images courtesy Treefort Festival

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