Boise Pride’s September Festival, three days of exciting performances and community

Illustration by Sydney Smith

Boise’s Pride event will be in full swing at Cecil D. Andrus Park from Sept. 8-10. Whether you’re a part of the community or an ally, this event is a wonderful chance to show support and celebrate who you are. 

Boise Pride’s Executive Director, Donald Williamson, gave the full rundown on all the exciting events coming to Boise during the festival. 

“Friday night we have a fairly new up-and-coming artist Reve,” said Williamson. 

Reve is a Canadian queer artist known for her iconic performance of the National Anthem at a Canadian hockey game in 2014. Her music consists of pop and R&B-infused dance music.

Over the course of three days, festival attendees can experience everything from musical performances to incredible drag shows. 

“Friday night is Big Freedia, which is getting a lot of buzz. She’ll be a lot of fun to see,” Williamson said. “She’s a black drag queen queer artist out of New Orleans. She’s really blown up in the last couple of years, [and] not just from her show, she’s ended up partnering on tracks with Drake and Beyonce. She’s the main headliner Friday night.” 

Big Freedia is known for her spectacular performances as well as her television shows “Big Freedia Bounces Back”, and more recently “Big Freedia Means Business”, which aired summer of 2023. 

On Saturday the festival will feature musician N3ptune. N3ptune, as noted on his website, works “alongside his co-producer and virtuoso guitarist Rusty Steve, merge the essence of gospel, blues, and soul into an amalgamation of pop music”. 

“The demographics in that audience were all over the board,” Williamson said. “Which was really cool to see a queer, person of color artist pulling that kind of breadth of demographic in their audience, especially here.”

And last but certainly not least, Williamson discussed some performers from the area to look forward to.

“We have a lot of local talent,” Willaimson said. Groups such as Corvette Collection and solo performers like Josh Amara will be featured at the festival. Hometown Drag Show is back by popular demand and will have two hour-and-a-half slots Saturday and Sunday. 

Williamson went on to note a moment from a past festival that illustrates just how important an event like Pride really is to everyone, but especially LGBTQIA+ youth in Idaho.

Williamson discussed a group of teens doing their makeup before the festival, noting that many of those kids may have been unable to do so at home. 

“To see them just be in that group and not have to worry about looking over their shoulder or who’s watching and just be in that moment and have that experience with their friends and to enjoy that environment for the weekend where you’re not having to hide who you are, that’s huge,” Williamson said. “It made my heart hurt. It’s cool that they have the weekend but you have three hundred and some odd days where you don’t get to do that. So to see these other pride festivals starting to bud in other areas, that’s so important.” 

Be sure to check out this phenomenal festival, and look out for the 21+ masquerade event on Oct. 13, and the Diversity Prom on Nov. 4.

Leave a Reply