Many students know about the countless music events that go on in Idaho. However, none are quite as big as the annual Treefort Music Festival in downtown Boise, Idaho. This year, Treefort took place from Wednesday, March 25 to Sunday, March 29, giving artists and fans plenty of time to roam the street venues and check out the variety of music shown during the festival.
While Treefort Music Festival is known best for the dozens of artists who make an appearance at it, they also fill the streets with over seventy vendors that sell everything from pieces of art to workshops. Although tickets are needed to see the music artists, anyone can roam around and visit the dozens of booths.
One of the market’s vendors called, “Making Big”, held focused talks and lessons about how to grow a business, with multiple business owners accompanying the booth. Boise Trinket Exchange has a booth that offers a chance to trade trinkets that have been collected for another trinket that piques interest among the customers. There are also booths that discuss overlooked women’s history named “Impolite Women”. These unique stations are accompanied by booths that sold food, arts, crafts and clothes.
Junior Charlotte Viola talked about her experience attending Treefort with her mom.
“There was a really cool graphic designer. He had made a bunch of posters, and we ended up buying three,” she said.
Along with these booths, there are many other “forts” to see including Alefort, Artfort, Dragfort, Comedyfort, Filmfort, Foodfort, Hackfort, Kidfort, Podfort, Skatefort, Storyfort and Yogafort, with only some requiring tickets.
The dozens of genres gave small artists a chance to make a name for themselves and showcase their bands. Bands who aren’t new to the industry were given the chance to give their fans a show. Some recognizable names included flipturn, Geese, Amber Mark and Father John Misty.
Indie rock band flipturn played March 26 at the Treefort Main Stage. American singer and songwriter, Amber Mark, performed a mix of contemporary R&B, hip hop and bossa nova on March 29 on the Treefort Main Stage as well. Father John Misty brought a performance of satirical lyrics mixed with an acoustic tune to the Main Stage on March 29. Described as experimental indie rock, popular band Geese took to the Treefort Main Stage on March 28 as a part of their “Getting Killed” tour. Senior Zion Gomes who visited Treefort was happy to experience one of their concerts.
“I wanted to see the band Geese, and I did just that,” Gomes said. “I liked the crowd. They brought great energy, and there were a lot of crowd surfers.”
Treefort Music Festival is a great way to explore new musical artists and experience the market and other “forts” as well. It’s a fun place to take friends and family, or even go solo and meet new people. For more information, go to the Treefort Music Fest website at https://treefortmusicfest.com.
