N.C. Pickle Festival was ‘one for the record books’

The 37th annual N.C. Pickle Festival was another one for the record book, organizers noted during a wrap-up meeting earlier this week. While the estimated 50,000 festival-goers who packed downtown for the main day on Saturday, April 29, did not break last year’s record number of 60,000, the festival did boast an expanded footprint and record number of vendors.

For the N.C. Pickle Festival Planning Committee, Monday night, June 5, was a time of reflection, of looking at what worked well and what needs some fine-tuning.

It was also a time to recognize committee members, volunteers and sponsors who contributed to making the festival a success.

The meeting was held at Ribeyes Steakhouse.

“Tonight we kind of want to do, twofold, as a celebration of a successful festival and kind of an evaluation — talk about all of the good things, but then there are some things there is always for improvement,” said Julie Beck, festival co-chair and Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce president.

Coordinated by the North Carolina Pickle Festival, Inc. in partnership with the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce, the award-winning festival was held from Friday evening, April 28, and all day Saturday, April 29, in downtown Mount Olive.

The Pickle Festival offers a wealth of free entertainment, a large classic car show, events and activities, food and arts and crafts vendors, pickle-centric events such as a pickle-eating contest and pickle-packing competition and of course, free Mt. Olive pickles.

“I think overall the festival was extremely successful,” Beck said. “We have had two amazing years in a row that our event has just blown up. In my mind we are at that pinnacle now that we are there.

“People know about our event. They respect our event. They appreciate our event.”

The festival enjoys social media recognition, too, she said.

Beck added that she and festival Cco-chair Lynn Williams laugh that over the past two years media is calling them, begging to come and promote the festival.

In the past, the roles were reversed, she and Williams were calling the media looking for coverage, Beck continued.

“They were like, ‘You are too little. I am not studying you,’” she said. “Now, it is interesting that they are calling us. To me, that tells me that we are there.”

One contributing factor to crowd size was the great weather, committee members said.

Also, people who have been confined at home because of the COVID pandemic were ready to get out and do things, Williams said.

“We are an early festival, and pickles are a quirky thing,” she added. “I think everybody sat home and said, ‘When I get out of here, the first thing I am going to do is go to a pickle festival.

“Last year I think the crowds were a little bit larger, and we weren’t quite as prepared for the crowd we had. None of us expected what we got last year. This year I think we were better prepared.”

As such Williams said she had more fun this year than last.

“I think that in a lot of ways this was our best one ever,” Williams said.

Beck agreed with Williams about last year’s festival — that a large crowd had been expected, but not one as big as it turned out to be.

“There was nothing we could do about it and the show went on,” she added.

Festival organizers learned a lot from last year, Williams added.

“This year we really sat down and thought a lot about OK, if we have another crowd like we did last year, which we ended up getting, how can we fix the problems that we had,” Beck said.

“So we expanded the (festival) footprint, which was good and bad. We expanded it farther down here (North Center Street), but we brought in more vendors so it didn’t look like we expanded the footprint because it was still just as crowded because we had more vendors.”

The festival had to bring in more vendors because people were still having to wait an hour to get food, even though there were more food vendors than ever before, she added.

Organizers will look at moving some sign-up deadlines next year such as for the Tour de Pickle bike ride.

The vendor application deadline will change, Williams said. Organizers were literally working with vendors up to the week of the festival, she added.

In 2024 the vendor application deadline will be March 15 instead of April 1.

Also added this year was a second free parking location to provide shuttle rides.

However, even with that addition people parked all over town whether it was a shuttle stop or not, Williams continued.

It is a good problem to have, but Beck said she does not know how that will be resolved.

There was some discussion of looking for other shuttle parking areas.

Beck said organizers will continue to look at possibly moving the popular classic car show since it takes a huge section on both sides of North Center Street.

“But we realize the car show is a huge drawing card to people coming to our event,” she said. “People love it so we don’t want to do anything to hamper people not being able to be in the car show or come see the car show.

“We are working on a plan to try to adapt that a little bit better next year to give us more space to spread out our event more.”

One issue that had to be dealt with was a shortage of volunteers, Beck said, noting that two Saturday activities had to be canceled because that problem.

Beck said she has spoken with friends who work with other festivals who told her they are having the same issue.

The festival attracted people from Florida, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Canada.

For years the festival was marketed to eastern North Carolina through newspapers, billboards and radio, Beck said.But now with social media ,the festival truly is reaching the entire world, particularly around the U.S., she added.

“I remember to talking to people Friday night who said, ‘I just drove seven hours from so-and-so,’ or ‘I just drove in from St. Louis.’”

Beck said she commented about them just driving through and was told that no, they had come just for the festival.

The guy who won the Pickle Eating Contest drove in from West Virginia just for that event, said Melissa Kilpatrick.

The contest was opened up online for people to submit an application to be selected, she added.

Kilpatrick said that as she was looking for alternatives she looked for local residents thinking they would more likely be at the festival so they could be called in at the last minute if needed.

“But of all of the 96 people, I think, who applied, there were only a handful from Goldsboro,” she said. “I think the closest next to Goldsboro was Raleigh I think.

“Most of them were from outside the state. That was crazy.”

It was suggested that for 2024 to have just one winner instead of a male and female winner.

Police Chief Jason Hughes and Fire Chief Greg Wiggins expressed concerns about vehicular traffic on College and Pollock streets at the same time people were beginning to fill the streets on Saturday.

That needs to be addressed, possibly prohibiting traffic by 8:30 a..m. on the Saturday festival day.

Both were concerned as well about the need to ensure certain streets remained open to allow for emergency vehicles.

Another issue involves parking for trailers used to transport the cars in the car show or tractors in the antique tractor show since they require a lot of space, they said.

Hughes also said that the routes for the popular helicopter rides scared him since the aircraft fly directly over streets packed with people.

Should something happened it would not be just one or two people injured or killed, it could be catastrophic, he added.

He suggested to prohibit the helicopters from flying directly over the festival.

“When you look at it we do so many things right,” Beck said as the three-hour meeting drew to a close. “The fact that so many come and that it is a safe environment, people having a great time, in general people smiling and laughing and enjoying themselves — that’s really what it is all about.

“And we are promoting our community, promoting pickles, and we are promoting have fun. We could not do it without you guys. I realize Lynn and I are co-chairs, and we do a lot. But we cannot do what we need to do and have it done and have it done correctly without you guys. We appreciate all that you do.”