Heyo! So now that we’ve all come off of our BMF buzz, the bickering has begun on what could have been done differently at the first annual Boise Music Festival. Michael Deeds wrote a great article on how the event that pulled in excess of 70,000 people and was one of the highest ranked Google searches on the world wide web is looking to be the next Boise River Festival. Here is a link to his article:
So, we thought we’d address some of the complaints head on. Keep in mind that Peak Broadcasting put on this killer event, we were only involved in the booking of all the local bands that played on stages 1 – 4. However, we were there to see how hard the Peak Crew worked to make this event happen and how they already have plans for next summer’s Festival.
Obviously the biggest complaint has been about the beer, as noted in Deeds’ article. This is an easy fix for next year. More beer + shorter lines = Happy Festival Goers. We know people were looking for beer at 10 am when the Festival started, we know you need your brewskis before the noon-hour strikes. The Beer sitch will be addressed. Do not fret, you cute drunkards.
More room. We love our fellow man, we do, but not in a sweaty, personal space way. Things were a leeeetle too close for comfort which is why Peak is trying to move the Festival to include the soccer fields next year. We’ll see. But we think that would be awesome.
Commodities for the Local bands. We think having 35 local bands performing at the Festival is what made this such a special, local event. Fans came out to support their favorite bands in droves. There were tents set up at each stage area for the bands to chillax and prepare, however the bevies (ie: water) that were supposed to be provided in each tent area were never provided. Our poor bands had to lug in equipment, perform in 100 degree heat, deal with stage schedule nightmares and then didn’t have water. We had a golf cart (Godsend Vehicle) and tried delivering as much water as we could until the water just plain old ran out. We apologize to the bands who went without water. This won’t happen again.
Amps. Not to call any companies out, but someone was supposed to provide amps for each stage and someone didn’t. This was realized at about 9:30 am. We called up some buddies who let us rent amps from them last minute and special thanks to Jerry Fee for letting us rent amps from him as well. The amp situation put us behind about 2 hours on stages 1 and 2. Then a sound board went out. In short, the bands playing on stages 1 and 2 were screwed, some couldn’t play due to time constraints and others were moved to stages 3 and 4. We apologize to those bands. Next year, stages 1 and 2 will be separated. Backlines will be triple checked. We’re hoping for smooth sailing. Thank you for your patience and understanding. We still hope the experience was worth it.
Stage Managers. We want to give a special shout-out to our volunteer stage managers. Tyler Bush, Shea Sutton, Jared Nelson on stages 1 and 2. Stina King and Bryce Majors on stage 3 and Mark Nagel on stage 4. You guys rock.
Finally, we wanted to make sure and list all the bands that participated on the 4 local stages. Please go out and support these groups if you see them playing in shows around the Treasure Valley. They were all amazing and deserve some recognition!
Poke
Workin' On Fire
Jerry Fee
Bodo Brothers
Elena Coats
The Girlfriend Season
Denae
Sway
Bank
A Rotterdam November
Desirae Bronson
Meech
Flipside
Danger Beard
Pilot Error
AKA Belle
Soul Serene
The Fabulous Chancellors
Steve Fulton
JR & The Stingrays
The Rocci Johnson Band
Moira
Travis McDaniel
One Second Til Forever
Nate Fowler
Marcus Eaton
Enzyme Dynamite
Boise Rock School
Light The Sky
Brandon Pritchett
Stop Drop and Party!
Rebecca Scott
Ohadi
Poppa Joe
School of Rock
We can’t wait for next year! Thanks to the bands that took part in making this event incredible, we thought you all were extremely talented. And thank you to everyone that came out to be apart of this great festival!
Jamie and Erica
