Boise’s Treefort music festival is still on despite coronavirus, as others cancel, postpone
Update Wednesday, March 11: Treefort has been postponed until September. Details here.
Sick? Nervous about the novel coronavirus? You may be able to get back the money you spent on passes for the Treefort Music Festival.
Treefort brings more than 400 bands and other performers, and gathers more than 20,000 people in downtown Boise each March. It is still scheduled to go on as usual, spokeswoman Marissa Lovell said in a phone interview Tuesday. But if you’re worried about getting sick, you can reach out to organizers via email or EventBrite to request a refund.
Organizers are giving full refunds up until the first day of the festival.
“If someone gets sick, we want them to email us and not go,” Lovell said. “We’ve always had people who maybe missed their flight or broke their arm or something, and we’ve always worked with them if they reach out.”
Lovell said a few bands whom she did not identify have pulled out of the festival, along with a speaker who cited a corporate travel restriction. Several artists were having problems with travel logistics, and “then the coronavirus thing just added on top,” she said.
Other music festivals, including Austin’s South by Southwest and Miami’s Ultra Music Festival, have been canceled or postponed because of concerns over the virus. Coachella will be postponed until October after Riverside County, California, where the festival takes place, declared a public health emergency.
Event organizers are working with officials at the city of Boise and the Central District Health Department to figure out the best path forward, Lovell said. Mayor Lauren McLean said during a news conference on Tuesday that she had received no guidance from health officials that would lead her to cancel any public events.
“We’re telling all events that it’s important to have contingency planning and important to be in contact with Central District Health so that as things change, we’re all ready to take the next steps,” she said.
McLean said that things were changing rapidly and that it was possible there would be new information in coming days that would change her mind.
Treefort will have “enhanced precautions during the festival to help attendees keep themselves healthy,” according to a new page on the festival’s website.
Organizers are asking people to consider their personal hygiene, including washing hands for 20 seconds, covering coughs and sneezes with elbows, and staying home if they have a fever. Instead of hugs and high fives, organizers are recommending people ‘booty bump’, tap elbows or use air fives — high fives without touching.
At the festival, there will be additional hand washing and sanitizing stations, individual microphones for each panel speaker, and sanitization of all microphones between sets, panels and talks.
The health department will inspect venues to ensure food, drink and sanitary stations are “up to standard,” according to the Treefort website. A medical tent will have masks for people with respiratory symptoms, and organizers may ask individuals to leave. Staff members and volunteers who are sick or feeling unwell will not be allowed.
The site says organizers have not identified anyone, “artists or otherwise,” traveling to Treefort from “high risk international locations.”
No COVID-19 in Idaho so far
As of Monday, there were no reported cases of coronavirus in Idaho. Officials at the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare say individual risk of exposure to the virus is low.
Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, is spread through contact between people within 6 feet of each other, especially through coughing and sneezing that expels respiratory droplets that land in the mouths or noses of people nearby.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it’s possible to catch the disease by touching something that has the virus on it, and then touching your own face, “but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
Symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath, which may occur two days to two weeks after exposure. Most people develop only mild symptoms, but some people develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal. The disease is especially dangerous to the elderly and others with weaker immune systems.
So far, more than 117,000 cases have been reported worldwide, with about 4,200 deaths, the vast majority of them in China. In the U.S., 793 cases have been reported, including 23 deaths, all but four of which have been in Washington state, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published March 10, 2020 at 1:40 PM.
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