The Boise Music Festival is an annual one-day music festival held in Boise, Idaho that features over 50 musical acts on 7 stages. In 2014, the festival drew a crowd of over 80,000 fans. The festival provides a platform for both local and nationally-known artists to perform, with the headliner that year being the rock band Train. The festival offers music across various genres and also non-musical attractions like carnival rides and food vendors. Local radio station Townsquare Media organizes the event each year to promote up-and-coming local musicians and attract fans from around the region.

1. Feature
07/23/14Pg 11
Feature
10
07/23/2014
80,000
50 7
fans
acts stages
Katie Meikle
Managing Editor
Saturday morning, 10
a.m.: the sun beats down as
the first eager festival-goers
swarm Expo Idaho.
The grounds are a dizzying
swirl of color and noise. Gid-
dy children scream from the
Hayworth Family Carnival.
Girls in bikinis with crowns
of daisies in their hair line
up for air-brush tattoos and
Pronto Pups. The smell of
barbecue mutton legs and
fried donuts wafts down the
fairway.
In every direction, throngs
of ecstatic groupies gather to
hear some local band or art-
ist you had never heard of
before today.
At Main Stage, earnest fans
stake out spots with picnic
blankets and camping chairs
in anticipation of the day’s
biggest acts.
“We’re here to see Train
tonight,” said festival-attend-
ee Sami Rice, a Meridian
high-school student, making
herself at home on an open
patch of grass. The San Fran-
cisco-based rock band head-
lining the festival was due to
perform at 8:15 that evening.
“We’ll be here all day,”
Rice said.
This is Boise Music Fes-
tival 2014: seven stages,
over 50 acts, and more than
80,000 fans.
Boise Music Festival
(BMF) is an event orga-
nized by Townsquare Media,
which owns and operates six
local radio stations includ-
ing pop music station, 103.5
KISS FM.
Townsquare Media
also organizes live events
throughout the greater Boise
area.
“Boise Music Festival is
one of the live events that
we produce from scratch, in-
house,” said Monchai Pun-
gaew, the Marketing Direc-
tor for Townsquare Media
Boise.
According to Pungaew,
big-name national acts like
Train draw fans from all over
the Northwest and attract
sponsorships to help cover
the cost of the festival.
Part of what makes BMF
unique, however, is the ex-
posure it provides for local
artists.
“The Boise Music Festival
is a great place for these up-
and-coming talents to show-
case their passion in front of
80,000 or more fans,” Pun-
gaew told the Arbiter.
“For these performers,
there’s nothing better than
jamming in front of a live
crowd.”
This is BMF’s fifth year
running. Over the course of
the single-day event, dozens
of local acts performed on
six different stages themed
by musical genre, includ-
ing the EDM and Acoustic
Stage.
This year, the Main Stage
featured an eclectic mix of
nationally acclaimed perfor-
mances, from the nostalgic
Sir Mix-a-Lot to new indie
sensation Fitz and the Tan-
trums.
“I don’t think you can beat
MC Hammer,” said Chance
Stewart, a festival-goer
studying marketing at Boise
State. “This year’s line up is
pretty good though. It’s a
solid mix.”
MC Hammer, best known
for the song “U Can’t Touch
This,” graced the BMF stage
back in 2011.
Of course, the festival has a
different draw for everyone.
“Train, rides, and Pronto
Pups,” said Sydney Fuentes,
a Boise State senior study-
ing communication. “That’s
what I came here for.”
Boise Music Festival draws crowds for local talent and headliners alike
BMF GOT BACK
page Design Jovi Ramirez/THE ARBITER
Photo Credits: devin ferrell/the arbiter