As another year of Boise’s Treefort Fest came to a close–the third annual affair–I’ve had a week to digest the experience and step back from an excellent, whirlwind weekend. Check out our 5 favorite new bands, photos and videos. Here are some thoughts on Treefort Fest 2014.

Don’t call it Treefort Festival: When submitting some promotional materials to Treefort for approval, I quickly learned that using “Treefort Festival” is a no-go in the branding guidelines. Now, I say this in jest, but it is an accurate testament to the attention to details and professionalism that the whole Treefort team has injected into the “fest”. From correct color formats to press check-ins to streamlined wristband systems, it is now very apparent to me how Treefort Fest went from a non-existent festival in southern Idaho three years ago to a nearly week long event with 350+ bands, many stages, yoga, tech and film events and a swelling fan base. This was not an accident.

Emerging Art Fest: If you’re familiar with Treefort, you likely have seen the “emerging artist” tag associated with the festival. When talking with Boise journalist Frankie Barnhill about whether this was due to an inability to compete with the Big Boys, I disagreed. In a festival market that becomes even more saturated each month, the homogeneity between line-ups in 2014 is absurd. Eric Gilbert & Co have created something unique, a niche in said festival market. As Eric pointed out, “there are some names out there that don’t necessarily have the best live show, but people will pay to see the mythos of that person. That’s the model that we try to avoid.” Instead, Treefort showcases younger artists who will quite literally leap at the opportunity to play, which yields passionate performance after passionate performance for festival attendees. This new blood model is working. Before heading to shows Friday night, I asked someone staying at our hotel who they were most excited to see. They admitted they were quite unfamiliar with the bands playing, but that was exactly what they came for: discovery.

Logistics will favor Boise: Ask any band that just played their first SXSW in Austin about the experience and you’re bound to hear about how tough the logistics were: parking, load-in, driving, set-changes, etc. Even seasoned vets of SXSW know it’s not a walk in the park to navigate between shows. On the flip side, Coachella attendees factor in the logistical hurdles of the desert, Outside Lands patrons know getting home after the last set is a challenge in itself and you could keep going on with this list. At this point in Treefort’s trajectory, Boise is a breeze when it comes to logistics. Last second hotel booking? No problem. Bike around the whole city from set to set? You got it. Easy load in and no traffic for bands? You bet. 27 minutes from downtown beer to waiting at your airport gate? Yep. It’s always rough when logistics sour an otherwise excellent festival experience. Luckily, Boise doesn’t present that problem to Treefort yet.

Human connections: I joked that I came all the way to Boise from Oakland, CA to meet bands I live down the road from and share practice spaces with. But this is indicative to the ample human connections going on at Treefort. Simply put, the value of a retweet, an email, or SoundCloud stream pales in comparison to a handshake, a name and a memory. I literally got to spend, in some cases, hours with bands and music folks that I had met online. I heard countless times about someone sharing a beer or a bowl with a band they’d only read about on the net. For me, Seattle’s Tangerine became real after months of correspondence, a podcast and countless plays of their music. At Treefort, you enter as fans and often leave as friends.

Relative values: In the ever-changing realities of pursuing music in 2014, I think it can often be very difficult to find reliable, consistent metric for success. What is a Facebook worth like? Is streaming an album for free worth it if 10,000 people listen? 100,000? If you finished a national tour and broke even, was it worthwhile? What size venue do you need to sell out to “make it”? As I talked with Bearcubbin’! drummer Mike Byrne, who also plays for the modern incarnation of Smashing Pumpkins, I listened as he described the differences between shows like our Treefort Showcase and a world tour, packed arena Smashing Pumpkins date. To my surprise, Mike genuinely appreciated and treasured aspects of the former just as much as the latter. Which brings up an important point: value is relative. 40 drunk people yelling “THAT RIPPED!” after your show might be less important than one person expressing complete glee with your innovative pedal chain and DL4 techniques. As Dude York’s Peter Richards explained, there was a vibe at our showcase and Treefort at large that everyone wanted to be exactly where they were. (And seriously, doesn’t this look like everyone wanted to be there?). So while a Coachella attendance number might seem more valuable, that’s relative. And Treefort is proposing a value just as real.

Figure yourself out: One theme that kept presenting itself at Treefort was that things are still being figured out, and I mean that in the best of ways. Young bands with this festival opportunity are figuring out new aspects of their live show and how to turn up. Nontraditional venues are figuring out the logistics of running quality sets in their space that they may have never dared before. Fans are figuring out the nuances of their tastes amongst hundreds of new musical options. Treefort itself is figuring out what it is and where it’s going. The city of Boise is figuring out what it could and perhaps should be. Hell, I have figured out many a thing about this site and what it means. Inevitably, as Treefort grows and continues to succeed, there will be hiccups. But that’s the fun part: we’re all figuring it out and deciding what we can be. We learn what works, what doesn’t, what didn’t go wrong, and what could be better.  I would argue the essence of Treefort is to take the risk, seize the opportunity, and learn all the while.

So if you haven’t been convinced already, I’ll leave you with one last thought: book your tickets to Boise for Treefort 2015 and I’ll see you there.