The crowd cheers and claps as a giant pickle is dropped Sunday at 7 p.m. — or midnight Greenwich Mean Time — during the 23rd annual Mount Olive Pickle Drop held on the University of Mount Olive campus. Presented by Mt. Olive Pickle Co., with help from the Town of Mount Olive and the University of Mount Olive, the event recently earned the No. 7 spot on USA Today’s 10 Best Readers’ Choice for Best New Year’s Eve Drop. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Ryker Van Tol, right, celebrates during the Mount Olive Pickle Drop by tossing his hat into the air. He was posing with his brother Levi, 10, and their father Jonathan so that his mother Dana could take a photo. The Van Tol family of Ontario, Canada, has been coming to the annual event for the past decade. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Several drawings for prizes were held at the end of Sunday’s Mount Olive Pickle Drop. Checking their tickets as the numbers are called are, left to right, brothers Joel and Malachi Simmons, their mother Daisy Loftin, her mother Camilla Loftin and her grandson Senquez Wilson, all of Mount Olive. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
People lined up to have their photos taken in front of a giant Mt. Olive Pickle jar complete with a giant pickle and the company’s Cucumber and Vine street signs. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Mt. Olive Pickle Co. mascot Ollie Q. Cumber posed with those attending the Mount Olive Pickle Drop. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Free Mt. Olive pickles were handed out during the Mount Olive Pickle Drop. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Iris Hoskins, 2, blows her noise maker as her mother Trisha straightens her New Year’s party hat during Sunday’s Mount Olive Pickle Drop. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Mount Olive Mayor Jerome Newton, right, welcomes the thousands attending Sunday night’s 23rd annual Mount Olive New Year’s Eve Pickle Drop. At left is Bill Bryan, Mt. Olive Pickle Co. chairman of the board. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Many people danced to the music of Selma-based Wild Ride during Sunday’s Mount Olive Pickle Drop. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
A cell phone camera is used to capture the fireworks display following Sunday’s Mount Olive Pickle Drop. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Those attending Sunday’s Mount Olive Pickle Drop had a variety of food truck offerings to choose from. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Natalie Akins of Raleigh holds the giant pickle she won during prize drawings held during the Mount Olive Pickle Drop. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Ryker Van Tol flung his bright purple “Happy New Year” hat into the air in a celebratory gesture as fireworks boomed in the skies behind him.
The 12-year-old and his 10-year-old brother Levi, along with their father Jonathan, had their backs to the fireworks so that their mother Dana could take a photo of them with a background of the display.
Just days before the family had driven more than 18 hours from their home in Ontario, Canada, to be among the thousands of people who gathered Sunday night for the 23rd annual Mount Olive Pickle Drop.It is a trip the family has been making for about decade since first learning about the unique event on the internet — that and the fact that Ryker and his mother both love Mt. Olive pickles.
Presented by the Mt. Olive Pickle Co., with help from the Town of Mount Olive and the University of Mount Olive, the event celebrates Mount Olive’s most famous product.And last month the popular event earned the No. 7 spot on USA Today’s 10 Best Readers’ Choice for Best New Year’s Eve Drop.
Originally held at the Mt. Olive Pickle Co. plant, the event, as has been the case in recent years, was held in front of the University of Mount Olive’s Kornegay Arena.
“It is on my bucket list, and we came down,” Dana Van Tol said. “And well, because these are the best pickles I have ever had in my life. I bring them home for everybody to have.
“COVID happened, and they couldn’t ship them to us so I had to come and get 18 jars and bring them home.”
Van Tol said her family and friends laugh at her photos of the event, but think that the Pickle Drop is “awesome.”
“They say, ‘thanks for showing us your bucket list and living out your dreams,’” she added.
“Everything” Van Tol said when asked about her favorite part of the Pickle Drop.
“The atmosphere, I just love coming down to the States,” she continued. “If I could move to North Carolina, I would. We are leaving on the second — I have to go back to work on the third.
“Everybody is just so friendly. Everybody is so approachable. We have made so many friends coming down here. The kids make so many friends when they are down here. It is just a great atmosphere. We love it. It is just a great time, and we love everything about these.”
Ryker echoed his mother’s sentiments.
“I like it, Mt. Olive pickles in general,” he added. “I really like to go down to warm climates during winter, especially New Year’s.”
Sunday night’s mid-40 degree weather was “nice” for them, he said.
Like his mother, Ryker said he will take photos of the event to school.
“They are probably going to be confused as to why we are dropping a pickle into a can on New Year’s,” he said. “We are having a good time.”
The Selma-based band Wild Ride and food trucks kicked off the festivities at 5 p.m.
Lines quickly formed as people waited to have their photos taken with Ollie Q. Cumber, the pickle company’s mascot, and in front of the giant pickle jar that the pickle of honor would be lowered into.
Also in front of the giant pickle jar was a large pickle similar to the pickle of honor and next to the jar was the company’s iconic Cucumber and Vine street signs.
There was a steady flow at the food trucks and at the pickle company tent where free pickles were handed out.
Mount Olive Mayor Jerome Newton welcomed the crowd, and Bill Bryan, chairman of the board of Mt. Olive Pickle Co., provided a brief history of the Pickle Drop.
“Let’s give a big hand to the Mt. Olive Pickle Plant for a great night,” Newton said. “And we are getting ready for 2024. It’s time to say Happy New Year, Mount Olive. Let me just welcome all of you tonight.
“I know everyone here is not from Mount Olive. You come from various places, and we thank you for coming to meet with us tonight. We thank you for coming to be a part of our celebration. We look forward to seeing you again next year and at the (N.C.) Pickle Festival (in April).”
Newton encouraged attendees to visit the downtown area before leaving and to enjoy themselves.
Bryan announced as well that the Pickle Drop had earned the No. 7 spot on USA Today’s 10 Best Readers’ Choice for Best New Year’s Eve Drop.
The New Year’s Eve Pickle made its descent at 7 p.m. sharp — midnight Greenwich Mean Time.
The Mount Olive Fire Department assisted with its Tower 23 ladder truck from which the glowing New Year’s Eve Pickle descended into the giant pickle jar.
The event also offered chances to win door prizes for those who contributed to the annual canned food drive for the Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC.
Natalie Akins, who drove down from Raleigh, went home with the drawings’ grand prize — a giant pickle similar to the pickle of honor.
“I am a really big pickle lover so I wanted to come see the big pickle drop,” she said.
It was her first time at the Pickle Drop. She was with her mother and grandparents.
“My mom told me about it,” Akins said. “I am going to hang it (pickle) up in my room I think.”
Atkins added she probably would put a light in it as well.
“It (Pickle Drop) was very cool,” she added. “I think I will be coming back.”
And she sampled the pickles being given away.
Atkins is a student at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and plans to take her giant pickle when she returns to the university.
Many of the people who attended brought chairs or blankets to sit on.
Trisha Hoskins of Chinquapin in Duplin County was holding her 2-year-old daughter Iris in her lap as they listened to Wild Ride perform.
Iris was sporting a green party hat and was busy blowing on her noise maker.
“She is having a blast,” Hoskins said. “She loves anything loud. It (horn) might get lost on the way out.
“She loves it. She loves music. We are having a great time.”
Propped on the chair were Hoskins’ crutches. She had attended even though still recovering from foot surgery.
“I sung in the choir this morning — nothing is going to keep me from having a good time,” she added.
It was the first time she had attended the Pickle Drop.
“My husband’s friends are from Mount Olive, and they invited us to the Pickle Drop,” she said. “We are so excited to be here. It is so amazing — what an innovative idea.
“I love the band. I love the songs they are playing. I love that it is from 5 to 7. That’s great and my daughter can be awake to watch the pickle drop and the fireworks. I think that is wonderful.”
Hoskins said she had not known about the USA Today ranking.
“That is amazing,” she added.
Bryan noted that Mt Olive Pickle Co. will celebrate its 98th year in early 2024 and that it manufactures and sells the best-selling brand of pickles in the U.S.
“We are delighted that USA Today picked us as seventh in the nation for a New Year’s drop,” Bryan said. “We are just delighted to be on that list with a lot of other great events around the country.”
The event had fans voting throughout the county, and it is just a real credit that it was able to be on the list this year, he added.
“It looks like it is going to be a great crowd tonight,” Bryan said. “We are delighted to be able to do a family event like this for people in the community to come out, be able to celebrate the end of this year and the start of 2024 and to be able to celebrate with their children, grandchildren and still be able to get home at a good hour.”
They also have time, if they want, to watch other events on TV, he added.
While it it nice publicity for the company, Bryan said he thinks the bigger part of the Pickle Drop is just doing something to give back to the community and to give people an opportunity to participate.
“We actually draw people from far and wide,” he added. “We always have foreign visitors in the country who wind up here every year. We are just delighted with that.
“Every year we try to learn from the prior year and try to do things better, make some changes. The ones that work, we stick with them. The ones that don’t, we go back the following year and try something a little different.”
The Pickle Drop was started in 1999 by the late Johnny Walker, Mt. Olive Pickle Co. president emeritus.
Walker had been inspired by a 1950s publicity stunt by Pickle Packers International in Chicago that invited past World War II bombardiers — who claimed they were so accurate they could drop a bomb in a pickle barrel — to drop pickles from a skyscraper into barrels on the sidewalk.
In that first year of the Pickle Drop, eight people attended, including then company mascot Mr. Crisp.
Mr. Crisp has since retired, and Ollie Q. Cumber is the new mascot.
In 2001 the event opened to the public and has grown ever since with new additions and improvements made every year.
