BOISE, Idaho — The Boise Goathead Festival is now in its fourth year after replacing Tour De Fat, this Saturday the biking community will come together in a unique celebration.
However, before this festival people go out in the community and pull the pesky puncture vine that produces goatheads and leads to many flat tires a year.
“We have this common enemy it doesn’t matter who you are or where you are from these goatherds will give you a flat tire and ruin your day," said Jimmy Hallyburton the founder of the Boise Bicycle Project. "We are down here at Wylee Street Apartments fixing bikes that had flat tires probably caused by goatherds."
Wylee Street is a success story as four years ago volunteers picked around 4,000 pounds of goatheads, this year they were only able to find about five pounds and that makes it easier for the children many of whom are refugees to ride their bikes.
"We tend to focus a lot on our lower-income neighborhoods, our schools and our apartment complexes where we know the kids are riding their bicycles," said Hallyburton.
After all the hard work the biking community comes together for the festival and it kicks off at 10:00 a.m. in front of the capitol in Cecil D. Andrus Park with the parade starting at 11:00 a.m.
"The day of the festival we celebrate that effort by celebrating every single person who loves to ride bicycles and we will do that with one of the largest bicycle parades around," said Hallyburton.
In the past year, we have witnessed more people on the trails, more people riding bikes and local bike shops struggling to keep up with the demand, certainly the pandemic played a part in that but it has also prevented some people from riding in large groups and this festival will help bring everybody together.
"We have some other cool stuff like a huge pedal-powered stage, all the music this year will be powered by pedal power we have a bunch of local bands like Eleven and Jason D Music hip hop band and just all sorts of stuff that is going to make it a really fun engaging day," said Hallyburton. "But we also want to make sure safety is the top of mind at all times and we are creating an environment where everybody feels comfortable throughout the day."
People are required to wear a mask at the festival and for a list of the COVID-19 protocols and the schedule click here.
