Hi. We're Pants Required.

Who we are

Pants Required is a small, independent local media company covering St. Cloud, Sartell, Sauk Rapids, Waite Park and St. Joseph. We put out a free weekly newsletter of events and deals, a monthly printed mailer, and this website.

Our goal is pretty simple: help you find things worth putting pants on for We tease ideas, never people. We'd rather tell you about the new patio on 5th than “a new restaurant.” And when something's paid for, we say so.

Questions, tips, or just want to say hi? Write to hello@pantsrequired.com or call (320) 640-1699. Or send actual mail:

How we pick events

We list as many local events as we can on the events page: anything open to the public that's worth leaving the house for. That includes what churches and other faith communities put on for everyone, like festivals, fish fries, bazaars and concerts, and every congregation gets the same treatment. We don't list worship services, religious classes or members-only gatherings.

A few events get an “Our pick” label. That means one thing: we'd tell a friend to go.

• 5 to 7 a week. Our top 5 for the weekend, Friday through Sunday, plus up to 2 weeknight events worth leaving the couch for.
• Local and one-of-a-kind first. A homegrown tradition or a one-night show beats something that happens every week.
• Range. A mix of free and paid, family stuff and late nights, every corner of the metro. College sports get one pick a week, tops.
• Real details. A date, a place and a way to learn more. If we can't confirm it, we skip it.

Picks can't be bought, and they're never tied to advertising. Paid spots get their own labels, “Featured” and “Sponsored”, covered in our ad policy below. Listings are written in our own words and link back to the original source. Got one we missed? Submit it. It's free.

Ad and sponsor policy

Local businesses pay to reach our readers. That's how we keep the newsletter free. Here's how we keep it honest:

• Everything paid is labeled. Paid listings say “Featured.” Paid content and newsletter sponsorships say “Sponsored.” Always.
• Picks aren't for sale. Paying for placement never gets you an “Our pick” label.
• Free listings stay put. Events are listed by date and time. Paid Featured events also appear in a labeled box above the list. We never hide or bury free listings to make room for paid ones.
• We can say no. We turn down ads that are misleading or that we wouldn't feel good showing our neighbors.
• No data for sale. We don't use ad trackers, so there's no reader data to sell.

Want to advertise? See our options or email ads@pantsrequired.com.

Privacy policy

Last updated October 22, 2026

This policy covers pantsrequired.com and our newsletter, both run by Pants Required LLC (“we”). The short version: we collect as little as we can, and we don't track you around the internet.

Newsletter signup

When you subscribe, you give us your email address and, if you choose, your ZIP code. That's all the form asks for. We also note the page you signed up on and, if you came from a link a local business shared, that business's code, so we can credit the partners who send readers our way.

The newsletter runs on our own server at news.pantsrequired.com, and the emails are delivered by Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES), which sends them for us and doesn't use your address for anything else. This website passes your details straight to our newsletter server and doesn't keep them. To keep out spam, the form briefly counts signups from your internet connection; that count lives only in memory and is never saved.

We use your information only to send you the newsletter and to make it more local to you. We email you once to confirm, and nothing else arrives until you click. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and it works the first time. If our emails to you bounce, or you mark one as spam, we stop sending to that address.

The newsletter counts how many times each issue is opened and how many times each link is clicked, as totals. It doesn't record which reader opened or clicked what.

Local deals email

Separate from the newsletter, we send an email of local offers about once a month. It's opt-in only: you get it only if you ask for it from a newsletter and then confirm by email. You can leave it without leaving the newsletter, from the link in any email. Businesses in it never get our list or anything about you; they see only totals, like how many times their offer was clicked.

Website analytics

We use Vercel Web Analytics to count page views and see which pages are popular. It doesn't use cookies and doesn't build a profile of you. We don't use ad trackers, tracking pixels or social media trackers.

Submitting an event

When you send an event through our submission form, we collect the event details, your email address and, if you add one, a photo.

• Event details: we use them to review your event. If it makes the cut, we publish it on this site and maybe in the newsletter.
• Your email address: only so we can ask about or follow up on your event. It's never shown on the site, shared with anyone, or added to the newsletter.
• Your photo: stored privately. When you send one, you confirm you have the right to share it and that we may use it with your event: on its listing, in the newsletter and in social posts about it. We don't use it for anything else.

We keep your email address and photo for 12 months after your event's last date, then delete them. If we don't publish your event, we delete them within 30 days. To keep out spam, we count how many events come from one email address in a day; we don't record your IP address. Want your email or photo deleted sooner? Write to events@pantsrequired.com and we'll delete them.

Emailing us

If you email us, we keep the message so we can reply and follow up, for example on an event you submitted. We don't add you to the newsletter unless you ask.

Backups

We keep an encrypted copy of our database and of the newsletter's subscriber list each night, for 30 days, in case something breaks. So something we delete, like your email address after an event or after you unsubscribe and ask us to remove it, can stay in a backup for up to 30 days before it's gone for good. Photos aren't in the backups.

What we don't do

• We don't sell, rent or trade your information (the one exception is the business itself changing hands, below).
• We don't share it with advertisers.
• We don't collect anything beyond what's described here.

If Pants Required changes hands

If Pants Required is ever sold or merges with another company, the newsletter list and the other information described here would go to the new owner, who would have to keep the promises in this policy. We'll email subscribers before that happens, so you can unsubscribe first if you'd like.

Your choices

You can unsubscribe at any time from any newsletter. To ask what we have about you or to have it deleted, email hello@pantsrequired.com. If this policy changes, we'll update the date above.