WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS — The Red Ants Pants Music Festival kicked off in White Sulphur Springs on Thursday with the Downtown Street Dance.
“We had a blast the first year. Brought our kids the first year, brought our kids this year. It's awesome. We love it. It's fun, it's good, local community stuff. We like it a lot,” says attendee, Monte Brown.
The family-friendly event runs through Sunday and brings attendees and acts from all over. In addition to the music, the festival hosts kids’ events and demonstrations such as horse and wagon driving, sheep shearing, a crosscut sawing competition, meat processing, carpentry 101, and more.
The event brings an economic influx to the community to people like Kim Morgan from White Sulphur Springs who sells handmade sweets from her booth Mema’s Confections.
“Boosts the sales up quite a bit and it's just fun to meet the people from all over,” says Morgan.
Started as a work wear for women company, Red Ants Pants tacked on a music festival to their production in 2011. The event is meant to bring people together to celebrate rural Montana farms, music, and women’s leadership. The Red Ants Pants Foundation donates thousands of dollars to girl’s leadership, timber skills trainings, and women in AG.
Sarah Calhoun, the Producer of the Red Ants Pants Music Festival and Executive Director of the Red Ants Pants Foundation, says that the community of attendees makes them want to keep throwing the festival year after year.
“I think it's the people that keep bringing us back together year after year. There's something really magical that happens here in this cow pasture even if it's a little warm and dusty at times. But it allows people to leave all their stuff at the gate and just come in and be the best versions of themselves and to connect with new folks and really cross some divides that probably need a little crossing,” says Calhoun.
