SNOWFORT: Boise’s Treefort Music Fest moved its main stage to Julia Davis Park in 2023, which saw record attendance despite rain and snow. (Brent Cheffings)
The Treefort Music Fest, an annual downtown Boise, Idaho, event produced by Duck Club Entertainment, has done the impossible in announcing its first wave of artists for 2025.
“We may have somehow convinced the haters,” said Megan Stoll, co-founder and chief marketing officer at Duck Club Entertainment. She jokes that social media commentary can lead to negative comments, fouling the mood of an exciting announcement, but says, this year, the critics have gone quiet.
“The easiest thing for me as the marketer of this is to notice the negative (feedback),” Stoll said. “There’s always that one comment that’ll stand out and stick with you, you know? But I’ve yet to see any negative.”
This year’s first wave of artists, announced last week, is an eclectic bunch that includes Sofi Tukker, Shakey Graves, Bright Eyes, Jessica Pratt and others March 26-30 at Julia Davis Park in the city’s downtown.
The festival uses Duck Club’s own 1,000-capacity Treefort Music Hall and 700-capacity Shrine Social Club, both within walking distance of each other and at a manageable capacity with around 10,000 people a day at the main festival site. With more artists coming, Treefort showcases dozens of artists, with a wide variety of ticket packages, multiple stages and all-day entertainment, extending from an afternoon kids stage to late night afterparties in a nightclub setting.
Franc Moody shown during its gig at Treefort Music Hall, part of the 2024 Treefort Music Fest. (Birkinbine Photography)
Treefort started in 2012, built on the idea of music discovery as a grass-roots operation, led to the opening of Treefort Music Hall (2022), built into a former Office Depot location, a project that cost about $8 million according to Stoll, and the Shrine Social Club, previously a Shriner’s building and which opened in 2023. Improvements at the Shrine Social Club including new sound and lights totaled around $400,000. That venue includes a 250-capacity basement space as well.
“One of the reasons we started with the festival versus a venue was you need to build the culture and the theme,” said Stoll, noting the festival’s early years hosting then-unknowns like Lizzo, Run The Jewels and Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats. The years of building the festival and rapport with artists and agents has made for an “easier” time of opening two new venues, she said.
“We’ve worked with artists to make Boise a viable stop on their tours. We were building that scene already and now we’ve got the venues, which makes the festival more of a mainstay,” she said. “Sometimes, we can’t keep up and we’ve got four shows a night.”
Duck Club’s portfolio includes the Hap Hap Lounge, a rooftop space at Treefort Music Hall that can be used for private events. It runs year-round. Upcoming shows at Treefort Music Hall include Bear Grillz, Soccer Mommy, Umphrey’s McGee, Parker Mills and Gang of Four.
Stoll says Duck Club counted 448 shows in 2024 as of mid-October, up on 2023’s total of 410 shows.
“When we started Duck Club, it was a small staff of me and Eric Gilbert, my business partner and talent buyer and festival director. It was basically five or six of us,” said Stoll, who grew up in North Carolina but has called Boise home since 2009. “Now, we’re blooming, at up to 100 people when you include bartenders (and part time staff).”
With the addition of the brick-and-mortar venues and a move to Julia Davis Park in 2023, the city’s oldest green space, Stoll says Treefort Music Fest 2025 will feature four days of entertainment rather than five, to make the event more manageable for staff and more enjoyable for patrons. Tickets start at $295 general admission for all five days, with a “locals only” discount at $230. Single-day passes start at $100, with further discounts for college students and kids.
“The park goes from afternoon till 10 p.m., when the amplified sound ordinance kicks in, but the clubs go until 2 a.m., so it’s a lot,” she said. “We’ve reduced the number of days, which allows us to focus on bigger headliners that people would know. Typically, we’re a festival of discovery, our brand motto. Our (43-acre) park is small compared to Lollapalooza, and we’re definitely independent here. We’re not owned by anything other than ourselves.”
