Red ants, women's pants and music
An extraordinary music festival is once again taking place in Montana.
It's that time of year again: from July 25 to 28, a cattle pasture in the Montana outback will be transformed into the venue for the Red Ants Pants Music Festival. THE event for thousands of music lovers - and fundraiser for women's and community projects every year. Created by women's pants manufacturer Sarah Calhoun.
White Sulphur Springs, Montana: I am in the store for “Red Ants Pants”. These are work pants for women. A couple enters the store after me. „Hello you guys!“, the sales clerk greets us. The couple is just as surprised as I am, because the shelves in the store are empty. The saleswoman explains that the pants can be found at a stand at the music festival this weekend. “Everything has been shipped out there, to the festival.”
You need to know this: Pants and music festivals are both the brainchild of Sarah Calhoun. The entrepreneur chose the name “Red Ants Pants” because the males of the red ants die after mating and the females then do all the work. What’s special about the pants, explains the sales clerk: “They are made to fit women and their curves. And they are heavy duty canvas. They have all the pockets that you need for your pencils or tools. There are also some motorcyclists who wear them because they offer a better protection.
It all began in 2005, when Sarah Calhoun moved to White Sulphur Springs. A town of 900 ranchers and farmers, hundreds of miles from the nearest town. Calhoun, who had grown up in the country herself, had always been bothered by the fact that the normal work pants, which are tailored for men, pinched all over her.
A shuttle bus takes me to the entrance, where I meet the enthusiastic Teresa: Every year I kind like „why do I come here?“ There is no shade. It is literally a cow pasture, there is cow poop all over. It is dusty. But the people who come and the music make all worth it. It’s kind of a hippy chick, a cow girl thing. I enjoy it, I really do.”
And indeed, on the huge plot of land where cattle usually graze, there are now two music stages, stalls, beer tables and colorful folding chairs. The music ranges from country to blues and rock to soul. Also on the program: traditional hay cart rides and horseshoeing. There is an artists' corner, a wooden dance floor and a children's tent.
“I love the type of people that come to this festival”, Teresa continues. “There is not drunk people passing out all over the place being rowdy and unruly. People really care about the musicians and the music. I meet up with the same friends here every year.”
One of them is Rachel, who, like Teresa, lives in the region. “Before Sarah Calhoun came to White Sulphur Springs, this was just an ordinary little Montana town. Even the hot spring was not very popular. Sarah has changed the whole face of this town.” And Teresa adds: “I’ve really seen the town profit, the businesses in town. The revenue of this weekend carries them for a year. They actually thrive now.”
With the first music festival in 2011, Sarah Calhoun also founded the Red Ants Pants Foundation. The charitable foundation supports women and girls as well as communities and family businesses in the region. In the Red Ants Pants Foundation tent, I meet some graduates of Calhoun's Girls Leadership Program. They were 16 or 17 years old at the time of the leadership training, but are now around 20.
McKenzie Serrano, for example, wants to teach agriculture at university one day. “It is said that women are not able to do what a man can on a farm or a ranch. I want to change this stereotype and pave the path for women in the agricultural industry. The Girls Leadership training has given me the knowledge to be able to form this path.”
Outside, in front of the Red Ants Pants Foundation tent, dozens of teenage girls are sitting at long folding tables, all wanting to do the leadership training. The graduates are happy to tell them about their own experiences. “This is one of the most powerful times of the year because we are surrounded by women who are the most bad ass people who will probably ever meet"!” Meta Agdon says and laughs. The young woman comes from northern Montana near Glacier National Park, where she learned how to chainsaw and fell trees as a volunteer. After her studies, she wants to work as a manager in the timber industry. Leadership training taught her the communication techniques she needs to assert herself against the men in the industry, she says.
A few steps away, a sawing presentation is taking place. Here, amateurs can try out how to saw through a tree trunk by hand in pairs. One woman is instructing two other women how to hold the long saw between them and move it back and forth in the same rhythm.
Finally, the two women have managed to saw through the tree trunk. The shorter end falls to the ground. Hats off to so much women power! I stroll on. I want to know: What do men think of Sarah Calhoun and her festival?
“The Red Ants Pants is the better festival than most festivals because it is run by women. So it is a little cleaner, and a little bit friendlier. And there are activities… There is yoga in the morning.” The young man who says this also says that he has been drinking since he arrived here on the festival ground on Thursday. Today is Saturday. An old man is sitting a few steps away on a camping chair. I approach him about the slogan on his t-shirt. It reads: “Boobs proof that men can focus on two things at once". He tells me that he bought the t-shirt at a fundraiser for breast cancer prevention.
About the music festival he says: “I love being at Red Ants. She has such a good genre of music. And she helps women a lot. A lot also goes to the small farms and ranches and businesses. That’s where it needs to go. Especially after Covid shut down a lot.”
In the distance, I hear enthusiastic clapping and whistling. Someone on the main stage announces the next act: “Thank you all so much for joining us for this 12th Red Ants Pants music festival! Our next guest is coming to us all the way from Nashville. I want you to give him a warm welcome!”
It's already dusk when I leave the festival. Too early really, but I have two hours' drive ahead of me. Red Ants Pants, see you next time!
See more pictures here. And/or listen to my radio travel story in German here.
Welcome back to Montana! I was in White Sulphur last weekend for a 90 year old's birthday. Have fun.