Are you ready for a pedal powered, wonderfully weird, bonafide Boise festival? The one and only Boise Goathead Fest takes place this Saturday, August 28 in Cecil D. Andrus Park. This annual event is put on by Boise Bicycle Project and it’s a darn good time.

First things first

What the heck is a goathead?

Goatheads, also known as Tribulus terrestris or puncture vine, are an invasive weed. It has certainly lived up to its invasive title here in Idaho, as they are everywhere from the foothills to the Greenbelt to neighborhood sidewalks.

To be blunt, goatheads suck.

A young plant doesn’t look that harmful, but as the fruits of puncture vine mature they separate into five “nutlets” which are little pods that have ridiculously sharp little spikes on them. A plant can produce up to 5,000 horned nutlets on a single point!

These little suckers will pop your tires, poke your dog’s paw pad, and make you scream like a banshee if encountered while barefoot. This video sums it up the best (and it’s funny):

PS- here’s a really interesting Wanna Know Idaho story about how goatheads got to Boise.

The beginning of Boise Goathead Fest

This year marks the fourth annual Boise Goathead Fest. It's a hyper-local, community-powered event that’s all about celebrating bicycles, Boise’s bike-riding community, and eradicating goatheads in the Treasure Valley.

The seeds (or nutlets, if you will) of Boise Goathead Fest were planted back in 2017, after New Belgium Brewing announced its annual bike parade, Tour de Fat, would not return to Boise. Tour de Fat had become a very popular event for Boise’s growing cycling community. In its absence, New Belgium gave Boise Bicycle Project a grant to start up a new local, bike-centric festival and thus, in 2018 the Boise Goathead Fest was born.

To get the details, I talked to Mindy Hoskins who is the Event and Outreach Manager at Boise Bicycle Project.

As Tour de Fat transitioned out of Boise, “BBP got to say what do we want to do with this? How can we make it better? How can we get more local?” explained Hoskins. “Even though Goathead Fest does model the Tour de Fat type of parade, we created our own model and super localized it, then we focused it towards the goathead weed because it’s such an invasive species in Boise.”

“We were like, what does every cyclist have in common? Getting a flat tire. And around here it’s usually from the goathead weed,” said Hoskins. “Whether you’re a super serious road cyclist, whether you’re riding in the mountains, whether you just commute, wherever it may be – you’ve likely had a goathead in your tire and you’ve had a flat from it.”

The two main goals of Boise Goathead Fest are to get rid of the stupid goathead weed and celebrate cycling in Boise. To achieve those goals, the festival manifests in three ways: a community goathead collection, a bike parade, and a super fun one-day festival.

Goathead collection

“A month and a half before the festival begins, when the goatheads are just poppin’ up, we start picking them,” said Hoskins.

Since June 1, people all around the Treasure Valley have been picking goatheads and reporting hotspots, then taking their pickings down to the designated dumpster at North End Organic Nursery to be weighed.

At the beginning, BBP’s goal was to pick 4,000 pounds before Goathead Fest.

"We just reached over 11,000 pounds. We’ve gone through three full-to-the-brim dumpsters of just goathead weed,” said Hoskins. "“Since we pushed the festival back a little bit this year, we’ve had more time to really get out and get them."

More than 11,000 pounds of goatheads, gone. It’s not only super impressive – it’s a record.

“It’s so cool. It’s such a huge number – the biggest number we’ve ever had in the last four years. It makes me so grateful and so proud of our community,” said Hoskins. “The hope is that one day, the number of goatheads that we pick just goes down and down and down until we can’t find them anymore. We are super excited for when that day comes.”

Even though the festival is this weekend, there is still time to pick goatheads. The goathead dumpster will remain at North End Organic Nursery until next Monday, August 30 and you can bring your pickings in to be weighed through then.

You can also just pick them and throw them away on your own, anytime. Just remember: do not throw goathead weeds into compost. We want these suckers gone for good.

Everything you could possibly need to know about picking goatheads, including step by step directions, can be found here.

Pedal powered parade

This year’s festival is this Saturday, August 28 from 10am to 5pm in and around Cecil D. Andrus Park (aka the park in front of the Capitol Building). The fest kicks off with a good ol’ bike parade.

It’s become one of the largest pedal-powered parades in America and costumes are highly encouraged. The parade route is about 1.6 miles in total, and starts and ends in front of the Capitol Building. The route makes a loop around downtown on Jefferson and Bannock, which are closed to vehicle traffic during the ride.

If you plan to ride in the parade, you need to pre-register. It’s free but there is a $6 suggested donation which is not very much money so just do it. It’s for a very good cause.

Between 10-11am, head down to the park to get ready to ride. You'll line up on your bike with others partaking in the parade in front of the Capitol Building. Let me be clear, you are going to be chillin' here on your bike and waiting for a bit while the crew gets everything ready for the parade. Please be patient & enjoy the chill time. Talk to people around you & do some people watching. It's not easy to organize a parade with hundreds of people. If you really don't wanna wait, pre-register and get there closer to 11am.

Worth saying that you don't have to ride a bike. You can skateboard, roller skate, wheelchair cruise, skate ski – there's even some people who walk on stilts! Whatever floats your boat.

Also, masks will be mandatory while waiting for the parade to begin, but once you start riding you can take it off. Lots of good music and new friends to meet while waiting for the parade launch.

TL;DR

• Join the bike parade, it's super fun.
• Wear a costume, it makes it even more fun.
• Pre-register, it makes your life easier.
• Give a $6 donation, it allows this event to keep going.
• Wear a mask when in line, so we can keep having events.

Super fun festival

Once the parade ends, the festival begins. You can expect a full day of live music, food trucks, Lost Grove beer, good weather, bike races, bike dance parties, costume contests – there's much fun to be had at Goathead Fest.

Here’s the schedule:

11:30AM: Bike Boom Dance Experience with The Dance Commander

12:00PM - Hip Hop Lowrider Show with Eleven and Jason D

1:00PM - Goathead Runway Show & Costume Contest with Penelope Windsor with prizes for best costume, couples costume, and more

1:30PM - The Dance Off/Bicycle Boogie with The Dance Commander

2:30PM - Drag Queen Story Time & Kids Ride with Penelope Windsor

3:00PM - Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio on the Morrison Main Stage

4:15PM - Hop Hop Bicycle Block Party Finale with DJ Jason D

5:00PM - Festival ends. Go grab a bite to eat or a drink and support some local businesses on your ride home

Other things to know

You can become a BGF Official Ambassador by investing $125 & supporting the future of the festival. In addition to bragging rights, you get some saweeet swag.

The team at Goathead Fest needs some more volunteers. Like bad. If you are planning to go or considering it, please consider volunteering a few hours of your time! You will still be in all the action, just "working" for a bit of it. Shifts are like 2-4 hours and involves doing things like beer token sales, merch booth, med tent, registering people for the parade, and helping set up/clean up. Besides doing a good deed, you'll prob meet some new friends & have lots of fun while you're at it!

Goathead Fest has an app this year! They are working with a local company called Liiingo. If you download the app, you will be alerted when events are happening during the fest. Fun!

It's gonna be all canned beer this year at Goathead Fest. Lost Grove has created an exclusive Boise Goathead fest beer, aptly named The Lil Nutlet. It's an easy drinking French style ale.

Goathead Fest works with a bunch of different artists create big art pieces for the fest. This year there is 13 new artists with new works! Be sure to check them out.

If you didn't know, Goathead Fest is super kid-friendly. There's even a specific kids' ride and story hour with a lovely local drag queen, Miss Penelope Windsor.

Goathead Fest is also dog-friendly, but just make sure your dog is on leash and happy in big crowds. If you are planning to ride in the parade with dog, first of all cute, and second of all maybe have it in a basket or cart or something because it can be a little dense in the parade.

Last but not least, a few things you should know about Boise Bicycle Project. BBP is *such* a cool nonprofit and does lots of really great stuff in Boise. They have recycled thousands of bikes back into the community & are on a mission to help everyone have access to quality & affordable bikes, repair & education, regardless of age, background, or income. Some of their programs include:

• Giving free bikes to kids ages 4-11 every month & during the holidays. Each bike also comes with a helmet, lights & a lock after completing a 1-hour safety class at BBP.
• Mobile bike repair for kids & adults that can't get themselves down to the shop
• Kids fix-it-night where they teach kids how to fix their bikes
• Adult & youth work-trade, where people can come in and work in exchange for shop time, memberships, or a new bike
• DIY bike repair with memberships
• Weekly volunteer nights

Find out more about BBP at www.boisebicycleproject.org​

Hope to see you out & about at Boise Goathead Fest this Saturday!

Thanks so much for reading <3

With love from Boise,

-Marissa