Dwight Yoakam headlines Red Ants Pants

Weekend-long, grassroots, honky-tonkin' music festival begins Thursday, July 26

New & Notable
Red Ants Pants Festival
The 2018 poster competition winner is Liz Arnold, with her piece titled, “Nellie.”

Dwight Yoakam – country superstar and multiple Grammy winner – headlines a star-studded Red Ants Pants Festival, coming to White Sulphur Springs July 26-29 at at the festival grounds – a working cow pasture on the Jackson Ranch just outside of White Sulphur Springs.

Yoakam has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide and has 12 gold albums and nine platinum or multi-platinum albums, with five of those albums topping Billboard’s Country Albums chart and another 14 landing in the Top 10. Nearly 40 of Yoakam’s singles have charted on Billboard, with 14 peaking in the Top 10.

Country superstars Pam Tillis and Lorrie Morgan also are bringing their highly successful Grits and Glamour Tour to the Red Ants Pants Music Festival. Combined, Tillis and Morgan have recorded 28 top 10 hits, more than 18 million records sold, and 12 number-one songs.

This year’s lineup will also include Shovels and Rope, which Rolling Stone included in their top country albums of the year; the Steep Canyon Rangers, Junior Brown, Jim Lauderdale, Chancey Williams and the Younger Brothers Band, The Secret Sisters, HONEYHONEY, Lindi Ortega and more.

In all, the festival opens with a free street dance on Thursday, July 26, featuring Sam Platts and the Great Plainsmen at 8 p.m. and Wylie and the Wild West at 9 p.m. The festival moves to the the Jackson Ranch Friday for 16 main-stage and 14 side-stage performances over three days.

With a reputation for paring Grammy award-winning superstars with festival founder and producer Sarah Calhoun’s hand-picked rising stars – the festival has grown from 6,000 attendees in its first year to 16,500 last year.

“We’re absolutely thrilled with this year’s line-up and are certain that everyone who joins us will know many of the songs by heart while also finding their next favorite band. We take great pride in making sure the stars feel like locals and the locals feel like stars,” says Calhoun.

This is the eighth year of the music festival, which benefits the Red Ants Pants Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports women’s leadership, working farms and ranches, and rural communities.

The festival has garnered strong support from the Meagher County community, with hundreds of volunteers and supporters around the world “who see great value in connecting with good folks and celebrating rural Montana,” she adds.

Learn more and purchase tickets are redantspantsmusicfestival.com.