Third annual Pickles Pigs & Swigs to be held Nov. 11

The third annual Pickles, Pigs & Swigs will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11 at the Southern Bank Parklet at the corner of South Center and East Main streets.

Sponsored by the Mt. Olive Area Chamber of Commerce, the N.C. Pork Council-sanctioned whole hog barbecue cook-off, benefits the Mount Olive Downtown Development Corp.

The cooking begins Friday night, Nov. 10, followed by Saturday’s festival and barbecue plate sale from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Smithfield Foods is once again the presenting sponsor, providing the pigs for the cook-off.

“It is to promote the world of agriculture,” said Julie Beck, Chamber president. “Of course one of the best things about this is the money that we raise goes toward the Mount Olive Downtown Development Corp. which is all part of this strategic plan for (downtown) revitalization. I think that is a real plus for us that the money we are raising goes toward them.

“We actually shortened the hours up a little bit from what it has been in the past because we found that the two years that we had it the crowd had gotten smaller toward the end. So we decided to wrap it up just a little earlier. Plus with it being in November it is starting to get dark and colder. That just made a lot of sense.”

Currently there are 16 cook teams. There were 20 the first year and last year there were 10.

“We would like to get back to 20, but we are happy with our 16,” Beck said.

The teams will cook their pigs overnight Friday.

Four judges, certified by the N.C. Pork Council, will come in at 8 a.m. Saturday. Following the judging the team will chop up the barbecue and add sauces for the barbecue plate sale.

The cost will be $12 for a plate for barbecue, slaw, barbecued potatoes and hush puppies. Barbecue sandwiches will cost $5.

No orders will be taken in advance.

A drive-through will operate from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Methodist Church parking lot off of East James Street. Last year, the drive-through was in the Historic Train Depot parking lot.

It was decided to move it to a new location since having the drive-through in the depot area took away from where people could park, Beck said.

Traffic on James Street will enter the drive-through on the east side at town hall normally used for water bill payments. It will turn left into the church parking lot before exiting onto James Street.

That route has more space in case there is a backup, Beck explained.

University of Mount Olive baseball players will be helping with the drive-through and others aspects of the day, she added.

Also changed this year is the area that will be set up where people can walk up and buy barbecue. It has been moved to the Southern Bank parking off of East Main Street to make it more visible, Beck explained.

The opening ceremony, including the eating of the first barbecue sandwich, will start at 11 a.m. with a welcome by Mayor Kenny Talton and the singing of the National Anthem by Zack King of Mount Olive.

During the afternoon, members of the Mount Olive Veterans Memorial Committee will hold a drawing for prizes to be given away as part of the group’s fundraiser. Proceeds from the fundraiser will pay for additions to the Veterans Memorial.

The cooking winners will be announced following the opening ceremony.

First place will win $1,200; second place, $600; and third place, $300.

However, the rankings of all 16 teams will be posted, Beck said.

“Teams get points through the N.C. Pork Council no matter where they place,” Beck added. “The people who finish in first, second and third place are entitled to compete in the state championship for next year because they have already had the cutoff for this year.

“So, throughout the day we will have the bands. We will have Pickle Train rides for $3 each.”

Pickle, Pigs & Swigs merchandise will be on sell as well: Long-sleeve T-shirts (orange and navy blue) and short-sleeve T-shirts (green and royal blue) are $25; T-shirt hoodies (gray) $30; sweatshirt hoodies (olive green) $40; and Richardson 112 caps, $25.

The shirts come in sizes small to 3X.

All of the items are now on sale at the Chamber office, 123 N. Center St.

Classic tractors will be on display along with other farm equipment, and corn hole boards will be set up.

The University of Mount Olive will have a booth where it will be selling items.

Between 12 and 15 vendors will be selling a variety of products including barbecue sauces and arts and crafts. Two food vendors, Taco Shack and Skullies Food Truck, will be open with savory food items.

R&R Brewing will be selling craft beers. And, of course, there will be free Mt. Olive Pickles.

“One other change this year, we are going to have two bands and give them a longer time period to perform,” Beck said.

The two bands are Riggsbee Road of Raleigh whose lead singer Shelley Kelly is a Mount Olive native and Feral Cats of Raleigh whose lead singer Kim Kornegay is also from Mount Olive.

“So it is kind of interesting our two bands are from Raleigh and the lead singers are from Mount Olive,” Beck said. “We are just trying to grow this event. We really stepped up our marketing this year. We put a lot of advertisement in Carolina BrewScene magazine to try to attract people who like craft beer to come.

“We have been doing some social media marketing with some geofencing kind of stuff and tapping people who go into barbecue restaurants and drink craft beer — trying to say, hey we have something that combines these things together.”

The event attracts around 2,000 to 3,000 and the intent is probably grow it to 5,000, Beck said.

“I don’t know that we want to go past 10,000,” she said. “Obviously, our focus is on the Pickle Festival which is so much larger and takes so much time.

“We want people to come out. They can bring lawn chairs or they can just sit on the lawn down there. We will have a bunch of picnic tables set up down there people can sit at to enjoy the music and just enjoy the sunshine and have a good time.”

For more information, contact the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce at 919-658-3113.