Changes highlight annual Pickle Festival planning

No festival-favorite car show, a new location for the Friday night free concert, an earlier set-in-stone vendor application deadline, requiring that all food vendors offer at least one picklely food, and new town impact fees are just a few of the significant changes planned for the 39th annual N.C. Pickle Festival.

Another unique aspect of the planning is that organizers already are looking ahead to 2026.

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 25, and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 26.

“In 2026 it will be the 40th (annual festival) and the Mt. Olive Pickle Co. will be 100 years old,” said Julie Beck, festival co-chair. “We are already talking about some things that we are not ready to unveil yet. We are already talking about some stuff we are going to do during next year’s (2026) festival as part of that.

“We have a really cool thing that is going to be available to people, not only in Mount Olive and North Carolina, but nationwide. It is going to be very cool, very unique. I don’t know of anybody else whose doing what we are trying to do.”

It is very exciting, added Melissa Kilpatrick, festival administrator.

“We are diligently planning for this year’s festival, but we’ve already got some ideas that we are throwing out there for next year because we know it is going to take a lot of extra effort to get those kind of things for 2026,” Beck said.

“So, it is kind of exciting to be planning two at the same time, but it is only because it is that special celebration next year.”

Annual car show

For the first time in 20 or more years the popular car show is missing from Saturday’s festival line-up.

“There is no car show at all this year because of the expanded footprint, but mostly due to safety concerns,” Beck said. “No vehicles will be allowed in the festival footprint except emergency vehicles from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Saturday). This is a new protocol implemented by the Mount Olive Police Dept.

“We were not told to not have a car show. We simply told the car club that they had to set up in the First Baptist Church Family Life Center parking lot and would not be allowed to set up on Center Street.”

The Wayne County Cruisers, the club that put on the show, chose not to participate, she said.

Car show participants normally arrive after 9 a.m. and leave at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

“This puts moving traffic in our footprint where we have thousands of people milling about,” Beck explained. “Situations like New Orleans where a car drove down Bourbon Street and ran over people concerns us.

“As a result, Mount Olive police made it clear we would not have any moving vehicles in our festival footprint. We are sad that we will not have a car show, but safety is our number No. 1 priority.”

Festival changes

Several changes are in store for vendors.

“We are doing something a little bit different this year with our vendors,” Beck said. “They can apply until March 1, and that is a whole month earlier. Normally our deadline has been April 1.

“After March 1 we are not taking any applications. It doesn’t matter if you are local, if you are from Duplin County or Timbuktu you are not getting in. We are just making a hard deadline.”

As of last week, 200 applications have been received.

Following the March 1 deadline, a committee will review the applications for whom the festival wants for food and arts and crafts vendors.

They will be notified by March 15.

That way those not chosen will have ample time to apply to other events, Beck said.

Also new are impact fees vendors will be required to pay on top of other fees already being charged,

According to the festival website, “2025 vendor fees have increased in part to include a new Town of Mount Olive Impact Fee. The impact fee varies based on vendor type. This fee, along with the Fire Permit Fee and electricity charges, will be remitted to the Town of Mount Olive to help cover its cost of supporting the festival.

“The Impact and Fire Permit fees must be paid by every vendor, including Mount Olive Chamber members who receive a free space as part of their Chamber membership, and downtown businesses who set up a booth at their location.”

Finally, all food vendors will be required to offer at least one picklely food, and not just a jar of pickles, she added.

Friday night changes

Changes are in store for the Friday night events as well, including how they are marketed.

“We will only promote Friday night activities on local media,” Beck said. “Friday night is for our locals. It’s not that we don’t want others to attend, but people from other towns and states don’t always read the website completely and show up on Friday expecting a full-blown festival experience.”

The free concert that is normally held in front of Ribeyes Restaurant will be held instead at R&R Brewing, 541 NW Center St.

The change is due to the conflict with vendors setting up Friday night, Beck explained.

The band Spare Change will perform from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The Cuke Patch 5K Glow Run has a new location as well.

Instead of starting downtown at Center and John streets, the run will start at Westbrook Park and end at R&R Brewing.

Williams said the 2024 festival was absolutely the most challenging event she has ever done.

“Frankly, I am not quite sure that I am over it as we are working on the next one,” she said. “Now, I think we are better equipped going into this year to be prepared for the challenges. I think that every year since the pandemic the festival has just grown by leaps and bounds in terms of attendance. That has just bought a whole new set of challenges we have not had to tackle before and every year was that way.

“We think we have got this fixed then holy cow, look at all of the people that we have over and above what we could have anticipated. It really has been an evolution, and it’s been challenging in that I am sure that we will think we are in a much better position for this year, and we will just have to see what new challenges present themselves.”

Beck, Williams and Kilpatrick have been meeting weekly since December to talk about the festival.

“That, I think, has been extremely helpful,” Beck said. “We bounce stuff off each other — this is what I have confirmed, this is what I am working on. So, we are just not having some random conversations.

“It’s like it is focused on those activities and challenges trying to figure out solutions for them. I think that’s been very beneficial for us to meet every week and know what is happening and going on.”

It also has been an opportunity to bring in people that festival organizers need to talk to, Williams added.

“I think we have gotten more accomplished as we move forward,” she said. “We also have brought in new folks to help us with key pieces of it.

“We already have had some real good conversations dealing, I think, with safety, footprint, with fire and police, folks with the town.”

That will it continue, she said.

Clearly, parking and safety are the major focus for 2025, Williams continued.

“At the same time how do you make sure that you have a really great experience for the people who come and visit the festival,” Williams said. “That’s what it is really about — it’s for all of the people who come to town.

“It is about all the folks, the individuals, vendors, all the attractions and pieces of it that come together. We want them to be successful that day.”

Williams continued, “You want the people who come from all over — many of them visiting Mount Olive for the first time — you want them to have a good time.

“You want them to say ‘That is really awesome. I want to come back. I want to tell my friends to come. I want to come back to Mount Olive on another day and explore and see what they have going on.’”

Much thought has been given to the festival footprint and what happens as soon as someone steps into it — what happens, what is the experienced, Beck said.

That applies to vendors and festival-goers, she added.

Also, what is just outside the footprint is a focus as well since it affects what is inside the footprint, Beck said.

Prior to the pandemic, the Pickle Festival was primarily a community event with pickles as a theme, Williams said.

However, since the pandemic the festival reach has gone much farther and people are looking for a more immersive pickle experience, she said.

“They want to eat and drink pickles,” Williams explained. “They want to buy pickle stuff. That has been a big change.

“That is the other part of how we have had to adapt and to make sure that we offer folks who come to the festival what they are looking for.”

That is not as easy as people may think, she continues.

For the first time ever this year, all food vendors must offer at least one picklely food item and not just a jar of pickles, Beck said.

That could include pickle fudge, pickle popcorn, pickle pizza, pickle snow cones, pickle cookies.

That ensures festival-goers can’t say they didn’t find any pickle food, Beck said.

Pickle food items have been available at the festival, people just didn’t know where to find it, she said.

Now, every food both will have some kind of pickle food.

Beck said she thinks that will be a game changer.

The pickle food decision grew out of when Beck and Williams attended Picklesburgh, a large pickle festival in Pittsburgh a couple of summers ago.

Every food booth there had some kind of pickle-type food, Beck said.

That was truly a food festival, they agreed.

It was then that they understood that people attend the N.C. Pickle Festival with an expectation of finding picklely foods.

People also have the impression that the N.C. Pickle Festival is a food festival, Williams said.

Also, pickles are just a thing now and are trendy, the two said.

“People who love pickles, for the most part, they’ve got to be fun people,” Williams said.

“Dill-lightful people,” Beck added.