25th Fireant Festival in Marshall, Texas

Marshall, Texas has three primary festivals every year: The Wonderland of Lights at Christmas, Stagecoach Days in the spring, and one of the most unusual events around, the Fireant Festival, in October.The fire ant, a pesky red ant whose bite seems to sting and burn forever, come in native and imported species. But regardless of their origin they are generally regarded as a scourge in the areas they infest. Even a member of the Marshall Chamber of Commerce stated she would like to see them wiped out, followed by a New Orleans style funeral!

So why the Festival? First, the traditional sponsors (other than local merchants) have always been companies who provide chemicals or services to eradicate fire ants. For 2007 the overall sponsor was Terminix, with secondary sponsor Ortho. Both companies had large booths with freebies, raffles, information and games. The Ortho booth featured "Sink the putt" to win a T-shirt.

Second, fall festivals are traditional in small towns. The weather (if you're lucky; remember this is Texas!) gets cooler and people enjoy getting outside to watch parades, shop, and compete in contests. This year the Fireant Festival featured the traditional Chili Cook-off sponsored by ALLTEL (in which each participant must guarantee the chili contains at least one fire ant!), 5K run sponsored by Nate's Restoration, Tour de FireAnt Bike Ride --Patterson Chrysler Dodge, Fireant Calling Contest -- Marshall Mall Investors and Merchants, Diaper Derby -- Panola National Bank, Rubber Chicken Chunking -- Chase Bank, Lip-sync Contest -- Austin Bank, Gurning Contest (this involves making an ugly face in a toilet seat) -- Texas Bank & Trust, and Men's Crazy Legs Contest -- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas.

My personal favorite was the Fireant Calling Contest. Participants devise three calls: feeding call, alarm call, and mating call. I was amazed at the variety of calls presented! Some seemed unlikely to me; for example, I can't imagine a fire ant actually saying "Come on baby, I'm hot for you." On the other hand, others sounded so realistic I began to suspect the caller had been conversing frequently with a fire ant mound!

Other events included the Fireant Festival Parade sponsored by Certified Collision, Pet Show sponsored by SWEPCO, and center stage entertainment sponsored by Ortho. The parade was the usual collection of bands, floats, cars with beauty queens and little princesses, and equestrians. The center-stage entertainment included many talented performers. The performance by Shelby Downing of Longview, TX especially impressed me. With a rich, throaty powerhouse voice she brought to life country hits such as Miranda Lambert's "New Strings" and Shania Twain's "Don't Be Stupid." Shelby has been signed by a Nashville recording label, Gusta Records, and plans to have her first CD in stores within a year.

For shoppers, an extensive variety of booths were available selling everything from pottery to pepper syrup. My picks included Erin Lambers' "pottery that speaks," The Frame Gallery for custom framing (they cut mats with incredible detail), and Best of Vendors in my book, Pepper Nectar™. Can you imagine cream pies made with jalapeño syrup? I sampled lemon and sweet potato and they were fantastic! I especially liked the sweet potato. The pies are available in ten different varieties, all with that extra "kick" from the slight jalapeño flavor. Pepper Nectar™ is not a local (Marshall) business; it is located in Tenaha, Texas, south of Marshall on Highway 59.

The third (and perhaps most important) reason for the Marshall Fireant Festival is that in 1983, when it began, it was unique. National networks featured it on their newscasts, seemingly a bit puzzled but enthusiastic. At least one U.S. town decided to have its own festival starting in 1996, but Marshall was the first. Overall, I give the 25^th Fireant Festival an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10 - lots of fun, but room for improvement at number 26 next year!