The sixth annual Red Ants Pants Music Festival kicked off its 2016 event Thursday, and this year several Flathead Valley musicians are making the trip to White Sulphur Springs to perform.

The festival is a four-day event that raises money for the Red Ants Pants Foundation. This year the main stage lineup included a local favorite, the Mission Mountain Wood Band.

“We’re excited about it,” said band member Rob Quist. “We love playing for our Montana audience. A lot of people have told us what a great atmosphere this festival has, and we’re looking forward to being a part of it.”

This will be the Mission Mountain Wood Band’s first appearance at the Red Ants Pants Music Festival. Quist said the group had been approached about participating in previous years, but never was able to work out the scheduling. He said the entire group was pleased it worked out this year.

The Mission Mountain Wood Band’s current tour lineup includes Quist, Steve Riddle, Greg Reichenberg, David Griffith, Trevor Krieger and Craig Davey.

“We’re happy with this lineup,” Quist said. “It’s a great group.”

Also appearing at the Red Ants Pants Music Festival this weekend are the Mike Murray Band and the Michelle Rivers Band. Both will perform on the festival’s side stage, which features smaller local and regional groups between the larger main stage acts.

“We are really stoked,” Murray said. “We have found that we’re more suited to the outdoor venues ... We can get loud inside with the full band. This will be good for us.”

The Mike Murray Band includes Murray, Christopher Krager, Marco Forcone and Ryan Wickland.

The side stage groups are also part of a competition. The festival audience votes to determine a winner, and next year that band will have a guaranteed spot on the main stage.

“I try not to even think about that part,” Murray said. “There are some really great other side stage acts throughout the weekend, so we’re just looking forward to playing.”

The festival will continue through this weekend, featuring live music, agriculture and traditional work skills demonstrations, a cross-cut saw competition and the Montana Beard and Moustache State Championships.

“The festival is a pretty special experience,” said Sarah Calhoun, founder and producer of the Red Ants Pants Music Festival and Foundation. “This year our goal is to continue to improve the whole experience for festival-goers. Not in a sense of getting bigger, but getting better.”

Calhoun said some of the new features at the festival this year include the addition of a dance area, a child and parent space, a larger demonstration area and various new sponsored activity and game tents.

Other groups performing on the main stage this year include Wynonna and The Big Noise, The Mavericks, The Lone Bellow, Corb Lund, Hayes Carll, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Dar Williams and others.

“Music is such a powerful tool for bringing people together,” Calhoun said. “It’s good for us as people to have music.”

Earlier this year the festival and foundation launched a contest to promote Red Ants Pants and simultaneously shine a light on Montana’s rural communities. “MontANTa,” featuring 9-foot-by-4-foot red ants posted on grain elevators, small businesses and attractions, asked road-trippers to take photos with the ants to be entered to win a prize package. The featured communities were Kalispell, Choteau, Havre, Miles City and White Sulphur Springs.

“Rural towns are very important and this year we wanted to really showcase those communities,” Calhoun said. “We want people to go to small towns and experience and support those communities.”

Ticket sales for the festival fund the Red Ants Pants Foundation (www.redantspantsfoundation.org), which to date has given more than $65,000 in grants to people and projects that embody its mission of “enhancing our rural communities, fostering self-reliance, women’s leadership and promoting our working family farms and ranches.”

“The festival is the sole fundraiser for the foundation,” Calhoun said. “It’s awesome to have a party in a cow pasture to support a great organization.”

Tickets are still available at the gate for weekend shows.

For more information and a full lineup, visit

http://redantspantsmusicfestival.com.

Entertainment editor Stefanie Thompson can be reached at 758-4439 or ThisWeek@dailyinterlake.com.