In partnership with Tamarack Resort
The hills are alive with the sound of… Oktoberfest! Join Tamarack Resort for an Oktoberfest celebration on Saturday, September 30. Enjoy seasonal Oktoberfest beers from some of Idaho’s finest breweries, German food, games & authentic German music by Wolfie and the Bavarian. Be sure to get there early to get your commemorative beer stein.
Bring the fam & celebrate Oktoberfest at Tamarack Resort!
Flipside Fest is next weekend! Are you going?
Flipside Fest is a multi-venue music and arts festival happening in Garden City on Friday, Sept 22 through Sunday, Sept 24.
Flipside is put on by Duck Club Entertainment, which is the organization that puts on Treefort Music Fest in March and has shows every week at various venues in downtown Boise. This year, Duck Club also opened Treefort Music Hall and Hap Hap Lounge, and took over the historic El Korah Shrine building and rebranded it to Shrine Social Club, where they’ve been holding shows in the main ballroom and in the basement.
Duck Club created Flipside Fest in 2022. To find out more about Flipside and why Duck Club decided to add another festival to its repertoire, I chatted with Eric Gilbert. Gilbert is the co-founder and director of Flipside, Treefort, and Duck Club, and he’s the guy that books bands for Duck Club's festivals and shows.
Gilbert said that at its core, Flipside is a scene building exercise. “It's more of a localized version [of Treefort]. It’s celebrating the local scene in a different way,” said Gilbert. “And it's also just kind of a fun project for us. With Treefort, we're actively trying to appeal to a broader audience and we involve a lot of other things. Flipside is a little bit more of us just kind of doing what sounds fun.”
Gilbert also added that Flipside is an opportunity for Duck Club to have a festival in September and to work with Garden City partners, like Visual Arts Collective and Surel’s Place, who haven’t been as involved in Treefort over the years due to proximity.
Flipside is essentially a baby Treefort Music Fest. Last year, at the inaugural Flipside, I heard many festival attendees comment that it felt like the first Treefort, which took place in March 2012. In comparison, Flipside 2023 is three days and has 105 artists playing at 13 venues, with a dozen or so art and skateboarding events happening over the weekend. Treefort 2023 was five days and had 500+ artists and 13 forts, each bringing 50-100 additional artists and performers, with events happening at 60+ venues throughout downtown Boise.
One big similarity between Flipside and Treefort is the multi-venue festival model. Duck Club favors the multi-venue model to promote discovery of artists and the city/neighborhoods in which the festivals take place.
Gilbert comes from the touring band scene – his band, Finn Riggins, toured the country playing 200+ shows a year in the early 2000s – and that experience has informed many elements that make Treefort and Flipside different from other festivals.
“From a band's perspective – especially for a bunch of smaller touring acts – it's a great way to actually slow down and be around other touring bands. There's a lot of community building amongst bands with the multi-venue thing,” said Gilbert. “Another cool way the multi-venue model works is that people come to see a certain band, but end up experiencing an artist they aren’t familiar with before or after the set they came to see.”
He also added that a lot of people love to experience music in smaller spaces, so instead of putting fewer bands in one big space, Duck Club prefers to put a lot of bands in a lot of small spaces. Which is precisely what you can expect at Flipside Fest 2023.
Here's alllll the important info to know:
Tickets for Flipside are available right meow. Here's the details:
Flipside Box Office is located outside of Main Stage and VAC (3638 Osage St, Garden City). You can pick up or purchase tickets at Box Office. Here's the hours:
Something that I love about Flipside's venues is that they are all outside! Last year it was pretty hot, not gonna lie, but this year the weather looks absolutely spectacular. 75 and sunny, baby!
Here's the list of Flipside venues, plus some helpful info:
Flipside Main Stage
Visual Arts Collective
Barbarian Brewing
Spaceport
Wepa Cafe
Push & Pour
Somewhere Bar
Coiled Wines
Sandbar
The Drop
Roots Zero Waste Market & Vervain Collective
Surel's Place
Art installations will be all over the Flipside Fest footprint. A few highlights:
Artist Talks, hosted by Surel’s Place & Garden City Placemaking Fund, will take place in the backyard garden at Surel's Place (212 E. 33rd Street) on Saturday, Sept 23rd from 10am-2pm. Talks will explore the creative economy, including “Why is our creative community so important,” “Building a creative community — two examples of organizing in action,” and “Maintaining a creative community amid gentrification and change.” All of the Artist Talks are free!
Junkside Flipjam is a skate invitational junk jam brought to you by Prestige Skateshop. It's happening on Saturday, Sept 23 on Carr Street between 34th & 33rd, near Push & Pour. It's free to watch!
The Common Well’s Clothesline Art Sale is happening in the gravel lot across the street from Push & Pour on Friday, Sept 22 from 5:30-8:30pm, Saturday, Sept 23 from 12-8pm, and Sunday, Sept 24 from 2:30-6pm. The Clothesline Art Sale is an effort to expand the population of art collectors in our community by offering original art at a steal. Hundreds of pieces of affordable, unframed, original art by local artists will be for sale plus free workshops each day.
Flipside Flea Market, hosted by the Boise Flea, is happening on 34th Street between Carr and Clay streets on Saturday, Sept 23 from 12-8pm.
Sponsored by Visit Southwest Idaho
Here’s three cool places to go mountain biking:
Wilson Creek trail system in the Owyhees is a great place for fall/winter riding. It’s a great change of pace from Ridge to Rivers.
Jug Mountain Ranch has a whole trail system with trails for beginner to expert. You could easily spend a weekend riding Jug Mountain.
Payette Lake Trail is a new multi-year project to create a trail system around all of Payette Lake & you can now ride the first completed section! Make the most of your trip by spending a few days exploring the trails & towns. I also recommend visiting McCall mid-week to dodge weekend crowds.
Find places to stay & more things to do in McCall here and find more places to mountain bike in Southwest Idaho here!
The Flipside schedule can be found on the Flipside App (aka the Treefort app), which you can download from the Apple store or Google Play store. On the app you can make your own schedule and share it with friends, find map directions to each venue, and listen to the lineup. I also wrote out the schedule for you :) here ya go:
FRIDAY, SEPT 22
SATURDAY, SEPT 23
SUNDAY, SEPT 24
Garden City is a weird mix of residential, businesses, and industrial buildings. This makes the parking situation weird. If you can, the best way to get to Flipside is ride a bike/skateboard/scooter, ride the bus, or get dropped off.
If you are planning to drive and park, DO NOT PARK at The Riverside Hotel, Stagecoach Inn, or in the parking lot of Esther Simplot Park. You'll have to find street parking, but be very mindful of neighbors!
There's food trucks at the Flipside Fest Main Stage, Telaya Wine Co, Barbarian Brewing, and near Push & Pour.
Restaurants in the area include Wepa Cafe, Roots Market, Sandbar, Yardarm, Caffe Lucianos, Greenbelt Market, Twisted District Brewing.
Alright, that's my guide to Flipside 2023 for ya! What other questions do you have?
As a reminder, Flipside is next weekend, Friday, September 22 through Sunday, September 24. It's gonna be funn! See ya there?
Thanks for reading!
With love from Boise,
Marissa
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