This weekend’s bigger-than-ever N.C. Pickle Festival expected to be a really big dill

Watch for the 2nd Annual Pickle Festival magazine out Friday in the mountolivetribune.com racks at the Piggly Wiggly in Mount Olive and the Warsaw Post Office.

With apologizes to James Bond — his name is Q. Cumber. Ollie Q. Cumber.

And this coming weekend, Ollie (the Mt. Olive Pickle Co. mascot) and tens of thousands of his closest friends will crowd downtown Mount Olive to celebrate all-things pickle — including free Mt. Olive pickles and a pickle-eating contest — during the 38th annual N.C. Pickle Festival.

Coordinated by the North Carolina Pickle Festival, Inc. in partnership with the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce, the award-winning festival will be held in downtown Mount Olive from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, April 26, and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 27.

The festival theme is based on James Bond — an idea that festival co-chairman Julie Beck came up with following her trip to England this past year.

Admission is free and to help the fun last, a variety of pickle festival merchandise will be on sale Saturday at the festival information booth across from the Chamber office on North Center Street.

The items will include T-shirts, James Bond-themed “lick-and-stick” tattoos, Pickle Festival stickers, Stanley-like cups, pickle socks, James Bond black sunglasses sporting the Pickle Festival printed on the sides, Pickle Festival posters and garden flags.

Also, there will be plenty of free Mt. Olive pickles and pickle company merchandise will be on sale.

The Friday night festivities will kick off with a free concert by Steel Country Express from 7 to 10 p.m. in front of Ribeyes Steakhouse on North Center Street.

Other Friday night events will include the Cuke Patch 5K Glow Run from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.; butterfly garden (that will be open Saturday as well); and pay one-price ($15 wrist band) carnival rides from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Steele Memorial Library parking lot at the corner of West Main and north Chestnut streets.

Parking

As always, parking will be at a premium during the main festival day on Saturday.

Free parking and shuttle rides will be available from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the University of Mount Olive campus at Kornegay Arena and Scarborough Field and the Mount Olive Apartments across from the track; Bobby Denning Shopping Center on North Breazeale Avenue (U.S. 117 Alt.); the Walmart parking lot on N.C. 55 West; and the Roses parking on N.C. 55 West.

Watch for signs for all of these locations.

Handicapped-only parking will be available at 111 N. Chestnut St. (the offices of the Original Free Will Baptist Convention).

In the week leading up to the festival, Mount Olive police officers went door to door along downtown side streets distributing a notice about parking.

According to the notice, parking will be limited to just one side of the streets to ensure that emergency vehicles have 10 feet of right of way down each street.

Designated parking for Chestnut Street will be on the east side of the street. Parking on College, John, James and Pollock streets will be on the north side only.

Vehicle towing will be enforced.

Festival-goers are reminded of another change from previous festival years — a new town ordinance that prohibits pets at the festival.

Service and guide animals are exempt from the ordinance.

The decision arose out of safety concerns for festival-goers as well as for the animals.

Boarding will be available at Bark & Bone on North Breazeale Avenue for $5 per hour.

Added features

Expanding the festival’s Saturday footprint in order to increase the number of vendors has been a goal of the committee for the past few years.

This year’s festival will feature a record 175 vendors offering a variety of foods, arts and crafts and other items. Also, local groups traditionally hold fundraisers during the festival.

“Two years ago we had 125 (vendors),” Beck said. “Last year we did 150, so in two years time we have added 50 vendors. That is because so many people are coming and people are still waiting in line to get food.

“They are saying, ‘You don’t have enough vendors.’ But oh, my god. We have added like 50 more vendors.”

That expansion will be realized by moving vehicles in the festival-favorite Wayne County Cruisers Car Show that normally would be located from the east side of the 200 block of North Center Street to the parking lot of the First Baptist Church’s Christian Life Center, 202 N. Chestnut St.

Additional vendors will be located on the east side of the 200 block of North Center Street where vehicles in the car show normally would be located.

To help festival-goers find vendors with pickle-related items, banners will be used again this year.

The pickle-eating contest continues to be a festival favorite and will be held at noon at the Southern Bank Parklet.

“We had 250 people registered, but we select 24,” Beck said.

Each participant will receive a tray of 20 Mt. Olive Pickle Co. whole Kosher Dills. Participants will have 5 minutes to eat as many as they could. A winner in each category, male and female, will be declared based on the number of pickles eaten.

Cole Lambert of Glen Daniel, West Virginia, and Joyel Miller of Mocksville, last year’s winners, were invited to return to defend their titles, however, Beck said she does not know if they will do so.

Lambert downed 13 pickles to win the men’s division while Miller crammed down nine to win the women’s title.

Ollie’s Costume Contest, including the new License to Dill James Bond-themed costume category, will take place at the main stage area at the Southern Bank Parklet at 1:30 p.m.

There is no per-registration, just come in costume.

Categories include The Big Dill (best overall), Pair of Pickles (best couple), A Group of Gherkins (best group), Petites & Baby Dills (best children’s costume under 12 years old) and the License to Dill.

“We thought that since Bond is such an iconic character and the inspiration for this year’s theme, we would incorporate a fun new category to the contest,” said Melissa Kilpatrick, festival committee member.

“Participants can dress up like the man himself, a Bond girl, or a Bond villain — we encourage creativity, and if they can incorporate Bond and a pickle theme to their costumes, even better.”

Ollie Q. Cumber will resume his role as host and judge for all categories.

“After seeing so many festival-goers dressed up in fun T-shirts and costumes in 2022, we decided to add the costume contest last year, and it was a hit,” she said. “We hope folks will embrace it again this year.”

A beer and wine garden will be set up at the parklet, too.

Entertainment

Free entertainment will be spread across four stages throughout Saturday.

The Saturday morning opening ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. at the main stage at the Southern Bank Parklet at South Center and East James streets.

Performing on the main stage will be: Wood & Steele at 9:10 a.m.; Southern Trouble at 11:25 a.m.; Riggsbee Road at 1:40 p.m.; and The Island Time Band (a Jimmy Buffet tribute band) at 4 p.m.

The Mount Olive Tribune Dancers Stage will be located on the grassy lot at North Center and West College streets.

The schedule is: 9:45 a.m., Abigayle Abrams, Miss N.C. Junior High School America, and Joyanna Greenup, Miss N.C. Elementary America; 10 a.m., Mrs. Robin’s Academy of Dance & Gymnastics; 11 a.m., 3 Dancing Sisters & Co.; noon, North Carolina Pickle Princess Court; 12:30 p.m., The Arts Company of Faison; 1:30 p.m., Dance Ascension; 1 p.m., Charles B. Aycock Falconettes Dance Team; 1:15 p.m., Miss Goldsboro Katie Strain and Miss Goldsboro Teen Abbi Kate Daughtry; 2 p.m., Mexican Folkloric Dance Group; 2:20 p.m., Rising Starz Dance Academy.

The Mount Olive First Pentecostal Holiness Praise Stage will be located next to the Historic Train Depot off West James.

The schedule is: 10 a.m., Mount Olive First Pentecostal Holiness Praise Band; 11 a.m., JoCo Community Choir; 12:15 p.m., Arms Wide Open; 1:30 p.m., University of Mount Olive Campus Ministry Worship; 2:45 p.m., Karson McCullen; 3:30 p.m., Rico Dawson.

The Hope Extended Stage will be located at the News Argus Corner at Center and James streets.

The schedule is: 9:30 a.m., Northbound; 10:15 a.m., Lydia Williams; 11 a.m., Hope Center Ministries; 11:45 a.m., Northbound; 12:45 p.m., Mike and Jamille Mills; 1:45 p.m., Tommy Evans; 2:30 p.m., Northbound; 3 p.m., N.C. Pickle Festival Mascot Race; 3:30 p.m., Mike and Jamille Mills.

New roaming entertainment will include Rick Hubbard who will be perform three 30-minute Kazoobie Shows.

Hubbard will play the kazoo and will give away 100 kazoos during each show.

The children’s activity area will be located at the corner of South Center and East Pollock streets and will feature the Five Star Farm petting zoo; Fresh Start Rescue (reptiles); Almost Amazing Rex; obstacle course, water slide, wrecking ball and bungee run.

Admission is $5 for an all-day wrist band.

The Mount Olive Parks and Recreation Department’s popular Pickle Train will operate from the parking lot behind the Chamber office. Water Wars will be located there as well.

For a bird’s-eye-view of the festival, helicopter rides will leave from the University of Mount Olive campus.

The Pickle Ball tournament will be played in Goldsboro instead of on the UMO tennis courts with indoor court play at the Carver Cultural Center gym on South Breazeale Avenue in Mount Olive.

For more information, visit ncpicklefest.org or https://nowhive.com/point/nc-pickle-festival-1.

Also, the festival map will have a QR code that can be scanned.