Whoomp, here it is! Gone since 2019, Boise Music Festival to return with acts from 1999

It’s the largest single-day music festival in Idaho, yet music snobs won’t set foot anywhere near it.

This is the paradoxical magic of the annual Boise Music Festival.

Love it? Laugh at it? Doesn’t matter — it’s gonna be huge.

After a two-year hiatus because of the pandemic, the all-day, outdoor event at Expo Idaho will return for an 11th time on Saturday, June 25 — in all its uber-mainstream, sometimes eye-rolling glory.

This year’s main stage lineup:

▪ Tag Team: Yes, the one-hit-wonder rap duo that had the 1990 smash “Whoomp (There It Is).”

▪ Mark McGrath: The singer from Sugar Ray (a band that previously played this festival).

▪ Eve 6: The ’90s rockers had hits such as “Inside Out” and “Leech.”

▪ Chris Kirkpatrick: A founding member of boy band NSYNC, he’s still singing and dancing.

▪ O-Town: Hey, the festival has to have an entire boy band, right? This one appeared on the first season (in 2000) of the reality TV series “Making the Band.”

▪ LFO: Now led by its only living member, Brad Fischetti, the pop/hip-hop boy group is best remembered for the 1999 hit “Summer Girls.”

▪ Ryan Cabrera: The pop-rocker made his splash in 2004 with songs “On the Way Down” and “True.”

▪ Walker Hayes: A pop-country singer-songwriter, he hit No. 1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart last year with “Fancy Like.”

▪ Tate McRae: A Canadian singer, songwriter, dancer and Tik Tok star, she’s still just 18. She was 13 when America watched her on the TV competition “So You Think You Can Dance.”

▪ Lady A: Formerly Lady Antebellum, the Grammy-winning vocal trio is the festival’s headliner. A staple of country radio, Lady A has enjoyed millions and millions of album sales — and digital streams in the billions.

Many of these acts are from “back in the day,” as a DJ noted Thursday on radio station Mix 106. That’s because a slew of them are part of a traveling nostalgia package called the “Pop 2000 Tour.”

Some of the names should make Idahoans squeal — or maybe just giggle — if they’re entertained by the memory of past Boise Music Fest performers such as Bret Michaels, Backstreet Boys, Vanilla Ice, Tone-Loc, MC Hammer and Nick Jonas. (And perhaps any “American Idol” contestant you randomly recall?)

“Early bird” tickets to this year’s festival range from $20 to $75 at boisemusicfestival.com. And if the main-stage headliners aren’t enough of a roller-coaster ride? There’s also a carnival on site. It costs extra.

Rather take your chances on free tickets? Tons are given away through contests held by radio stations owned by Townsquare Media, which produces the Boise Music Fest.

Started in 2010, the Boise Music Fest was held at Ann Morrison Park before being relocated Expo Idaho, 5610 N. Glenwood St., in Garden City.

About 40,000 people attended the last one, held in 2019, according to numbers supplied two years ago by Townsquare Media.

This story was originally published March 31, 2022 at 8:38 AM.