What if your festival experience asked you to grow as a human, to learn as an artist, as an individual? What if we stopped worrying about what everyone is wearing and who is who and we all just hung out for a weekend? I truly mean it when I say Treefort is for everyone, there is no scene, no pretense, no cool kids, or exclusionary vibe. It’s just nothing but goodness.

So, let this be a call to change festival culture and learn from these Idahoans. Let’s be a little more inclusive, and a little more loving, a little more inclined toward discovery and trying something new. Because there are podcast chats to hear, midnight Magic Sword to attend, and tacos to eat, and lambs roasting in honor of the Basque heritage, and late night breakfasts, and a million other delightfully strange things to try and see and listen to. And who knows, you just might love it.

Usually you can rely on hipster millennials to tell you what's gonna be cool before it's cool. Like, drinking uncomfortably hoppy beer, or eating Spam, or which neighborhood will be the next hip neighborhood. But for whatever reason, you rarely hear talk of the next up-and-coming travel destination (except, like, Mexico City. "I was going to Mexico City waaay before everyone else was going to Mexico City.”)

Channeling my inner cool kid, I went searching for under-the-radar cities across the US that are poised to become the new Nashvilles and Portlands -- polling travel experts around the country and looking at data trends like increased hotel construction and tourism infrastructure. And, you know, cities with the cool, calm, collected demeanor of someone who knows something you don’t yet. Here are eight cities you should go visit before they get too popular.

Boise, Idaho

If you want to see Seattle, Portland, or Denver before $14-a-drink bars discovered them, check out Boise. The creative center of Idaho is filling the beer-and-outdoors gaps these cities left when they fell to the mass popularity. Firstly, it boasts 190 miles of single-track trails that start practically in the middle of Downtown and a 30-mile Greenbelt trail that traverses the city. Second, Boise opens brewpubs like Florida builds condos, with four new ones planned for this year, including Bozeman’s White Dog. The X-Games will be hosting a qualifier at the city’s spanking-new skate park, and Bogus Basin just pumped $4 million into summer-activity improvements. Combine all of this with the walkability and affordability bigger cities lack, and you’ve got a strong case for Boise as “the new Portland.”

Approximately 1.9 million students around the country will graduate with bachelor’s degrees this year, many this month and next. A key question as they prepare to pursue their dreams: where?

The most surprising may be No. 2 Boise, Idaho, which makes the list thanks to strong job growth projections and a high percentage of adults with college degrees. Boise also ranked 13th on our list of the best places for business, in part due to its fast-growing tech sector. Government and business, however, remain the strongest sectors.

There’s a buzz in Boise, and it sounds a lot like Instagram shutters snapping from Freak Alley Gallery. This outdoor venue is all about building a creative community in the heart of Boise, and it’s playing its part in making Idaho’s capital more colorful with murals and events. Boise GreenBike makes it easy to embrace the neighborhood’s open-air way of life with convenient bike sharing. How cool is that?

Find your chill: Craving some amazing craft beer? Visit downtown Boise in early October for the annual Hoptober Freshtival, hosted by Boise Brewing.

Don’t worry if you’re not familiar—what Boise lacks in fame it makes up for in peaceful standard of living at a very reasonable price. 

In fact, next to Arlington, Boise is the least expensive place to live in our list at $942 average monthly rent. Not only is it cheap, it’s also incredibly safe: in 2006 Boise came in #1 on Farmer’s Insurance list of the most secure places to live. 

That’s not the only thing that makes Boise a great place to raise a family. Boise Town Square is the city’s biggest mall and has everything you could want, from a Build-a-Bear Workshop to a Dave and Busters. 

Zoo Boise is beautiful, educational, and fun for all ages, and Bogus Basin is a fantastic weekend ski getaway.

Idaho has a lot going for it these days. Just ask Mark Tidd, CEO of Boise-based TitleOne Corporation, with 13 locations serving 14 counties throughout the state. From affordability to lifestyle, Idaho’s allure is attracting many out-of-state homebuyers, drawn by the promise of an all-around better quality of life. In this exclusive interview, Tidd shares just why Idaho is booming, and how his firm supports the rise in homeownership by playing a key role at the closing table.

Becker's Hospital Review is pleased to release the 2017 edition of its list of "100 great hospitals in America."

The hospitals included on this list are renowned for excellence. They are industry leaders in innovation, quality patient care and clinical research, and have received recognition across various publications and accrediting organizations.

The Becker's Hospital Review editorial team selected hospitals for inclusion based on analysis of several ranking and award agencies, including U.S. News and World Report's 2016-17 Honor Roll and specialty rankings, CMS star ratings, Leapfrog grades, Truven Health Analytics top hospitals, Most Wired hospitals and Magnet accreditation.

With music festivals being at their peak of popularity – and their peak of homogenization – the search for a festival that truly offers something others don’t becomes that much more prevalent. In the saturated market that is the modern festival scene, if you see a really stacked festival that happens to be taking place far away from you, you can generally take comfort in knowing that at least three-fourths of those artists will be booked for festivals near you.

It’s for this reason that many including myself have been intrigued by the growing popularity of Boise, ID’s Treefort Music Fest, a festival that has for all intents and purposes achieved universal god-tier status as the best festival currently running regardless of location, with a community and feel unlike any other festival you’ll find. It’s easy to be skeptical – especially since Boise’s second most-popular music festival’s 2017 lineup boasts such mouth-watering headliners as Flo Rida and Austin Mahone – but to any Treefort newcomers whom were in the audience in 2017, it’s hard to shake the sensational feeling that Treefort is the most at-home you’ll feel with a modern festival.

At its foundation, Treefort is the city of Boise’s attempt at “North By Northwest,” a name and concept you’ll hear thrown around when discussing any Northwest festival that goes for the SXSW formula of having several venues all in one space, with different showcases happening at once, across a longer stretch of days than the usual two- or three-day festival. However, Treefort’s most unique selling point, besides its communal feel, is the emphasis it puts on spotlighting the unknowns of the Northwest. Out of Treefort’s five days, the main stage was only open for three, and while there were some bigger artists that played on these first two days, spreading out the popular names among these smaller venues and giving them the same showcases as Boise locals and national unknowns alike led to a more even playing field and some of these smaller bands walking away with new fans.

When you think about Idaho, the first thing that probably comes to mind is potatoes. Of course, there’s so much more to the state than what comes out of its soil. It’s a place of real natural beauty, where it’s impossible not to be in complete awe of the mountains, rivers, and parkland. Plus, breathing in all that clean air will really change your perspective on the world around you. I recently had the opportunity to spend five glorious days in Boise for Treefort Music Fest. In between all of the indie rock showcases that were spread throughout the downtown area, I had some free time to explore the heart of Treasure Valley. I was lucky enough to have had the advantage of being shown everything that this pleasant city has to offer from local residents, and now I can share that wealth of information with you. Here, then, are 17 must-see spots you need to hit when you visit the City of Trees.

To most people, the Amalgamated Sugar Company's factory in Nampa is a marker for when to turn off Interstate 84, and a place where “they store a lot of beets.” But over its 75-year history, the factory has stood as more than that to its workers and the community it serves — it is a symbol of tradition.

“We have employees who generations of their family have worked here in some capacity. Whole families have worked here,” McAnally said.

When the factory first opened, the company was producing a little more than 2,000 tons of sugar each day. It finished its first production year cutting a total of 192,970 tons of sugar beets and producing a little more than 553,000 bags of sugar weighing 100 pounds each. More than 660 growers sent their sugar beets to the Nampa facility in its first year alone.

Today, those numbers seem like small potatoes to the company that cuts more than 12,000 tons of beets a day and produces 2 million pounds of sugar every 24 hours. The sugar company now also produces beet pulp, molasses and other beet by-products for use by food and animal-feed manufacturers.

The hospital on 12th Avenue Road was named one of the nation’s top 100 hospitals by Truven Health Analytics, part of the IBM Watson Health business. This is the first time the hospital made the list.

The list is considered one of “the most comprehensive, academically driven study of its kind,” according to a Saint Alphonsus press release.

“Being recognized as one of the nation’s top hospitals is truly an honor,” Saint Alphonsus — Nampa President Karl Keeler said in a press release. “Our staff and leadership work very hard to do what’s best for our patients, the community, and each other. This award is representative of the extraordinary people and high-quality care we deliver at Saint Alphonsus in Nampa.”

Bogus Basin Mountain Recreation Area unveiled a $4.3 Million dollar plan to expand the ski resort to an all season adventure attraction. It will include a complete overhaul of the current amphitheater, expanded lodge seating, an upgraded dining experience, a zip line and ropes course, and the installation of a year round mountain coaster. The mountain coaster is scheduled to open August 1st, while the other improvements will be open by July 1st.

Bogus Basin Mountain Recreation Area, just 16 miles up the hill from Boise, Idaho, is the largest and most successful non-profit ski area in the country. How in the world does this work without a profit motive? With a lot of love, caring and a tremendous army of local volunteers who care about the treasure they have in their own backyard. Here’s the remarkable story of how this ski resort first evolved and now thrives. 

Boise, Idaho: An outdoorsy Portland vibe without Portland prices
City population: 211,655
Cost of living index: 95 (5% lower than US average)

The Pacific Northwest boasts some of the most spectacularly beautiful scenery in the United States, but with that comes some spectacularly scary prices in its major cities. Go inland and you’ll find the hidden gem that is Boise, the lone outpost of civilization between Seattle and Salt Lake City, home to a klatch of creatives, hipsters, and tech types. One of the most bike-friendly and walkable cities in the country, temperatures rarely get above 90 or below freezing here, and the 25-mile Boise River Greenbelt gives residents a good reason to enjoy the clean air and rolling views of the city. Boise is also a short drive from the Snake River Valley wine region, plus skiing at Sun Valley, the Sawtooth Mountains, and Shoshone Falls -- which is both taller and wider than Niagara.  
 
Corporations stressed by regulation in the coastal states look to Idaho as more business-friendly, meaning jobs are plentiful, especially since the population is relatively small compared to Portland and Seattle. A house here costs $239,000 on average, and rent in a two-bedroom apartment runs only $932. Without a roommate. 

Boise was ranked #2 Best Capitol City to live in by WalletHub. They explain, "...many state capitals actually are thriving hubs of activity and thus some of the most livable places in America. But not all state capitals are created equal. And though 17 of them are the largest cities in their states, the biggest population doesn’t always represent the best quality of life.

So in order to determine what state capitals are worth, WalletHub’s data team compared all 50 across 42 key indicators of affordability, economic strength, quality of education and health, and overall living standards. Our data set ranges from “cost of living” to “K–12 school-system quality” to “number of attractions.” Read on for our findings, expert insight from a panel of researchers and a full description of our methodology."

Here are the top 20 #ForTheWinter photos from our record-breaking winter!