N.C. Pickle Festival co-chair Julie Beck holds one of the posters for the 2023 edition of the festival. On the wall behind her is a painting done during the 2022 festival as well as posters from previous Pickle Festivals. Pickle socks and a pickle-costume contest have been added to this year’s festival to be held April 28-29 in downtown Mount Olive (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Are you in search of pickle-themed socks to complete your ensemble?
Do you have a pickle-themed costume, but no where to wear it?
Or do you just enjoy pickles and festivals?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then the N.C. Pickle Festival just might be the place for you.
Coordinated by the North Carolina Pickle Festival, Inc. in partnership with the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce, the 37th annual N.C. Pickle Festival will be held from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, April 28, and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 29, in downtown Mount Olive.
The festival offers plenty of free entertainment, a large car show, a host of 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 Pickle Co. pickles.
And organizers are constantly searching for new ideas for the festiva,l such as this year’s pickle costume contest.
“One of the things we noticed last year was a lot of people came and a lot were dressed up in pickle costumes,” said Julie Beck, Chamber president and festival co-chair. “We didn’t advertise it. We don’t know why it happened.
“But we saw so many that we decided we should take that opportunity so we’re actually creating a form right now that we are getting ready to put on our website where you can sign up to enter a pickle-costume contest.”
The categories are still being worked out, but will include ones for children, adults, couples and groups, Beck said.
The time is tentatively set for 1 p.m. Saturday, April 29, at the Southern Bank Parklet at the corner of East Main and South Center streets.
Ollie Q. Cumber, the Mt. Olive Pickle Co. mascot, probably will do the judging, Beck said. Awards will be presented.
“It should kind of be fun to encourage people to come dressed up,” she remarked. “It happened last year, nothing that we did. It just happened. So we said let’s capitalize on that idea. I think that just adds another element to the festival. So we already have our pickle-eating contest at 12.
“We’re going to do this costume thing at 1 and of course you have the mascot races at 2. So we’ve got these three designated things boom, boom, boom that are happening. I think we’ll have the costume within the parklet as well. The mascot race, of course, is on East James Street. So that will be something new that we have never done before.”
Prizes will be awarded for best male and female costumes and best group costumes. A portion of the proceeds benefit the Mount Olive Parks & Recreation Department.
The pickle recipe contest will be held again as well.
“We get some interesting recipes,” Beck noted. “We actually pick out one appetizer, a main course and dessert and we actually make it and try it. We film all that.”
As of Thursday, Feb. 2, online registrations went live for the Cuke Patch 5K Glow Run and the Tour de Pickle bike ride.
The 5K will be held from 8 to 9 p.m. Friday, April 28, in downtown Mount Olive.
The Tour de Pickle bike ride will start at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, April 29, for the 75-mile ride; 9:35 a.m. for the 53-mile ride; and 9:40 a.m. for the 25-mile ride.
The rides will start at the Mt. Olive Pickle Co.’s Walker Warehouse is located at 100 Commercial Avenue, just off the Old Mount Olive Highway, north of town.
April 1 is the early-bird registration deadline.
“We’re working little by little getting all these live (online),” Beck said. “We want to make sure it’s all correct information before we put everything live. So that is happening.”
To register for the Cuke Patch 5K or Tour de Pickle, visit ncpicklefest.org
Beck said she and Lynn Williams, festival co-chair, have been emailing each other on what they have accomplished as they work on the festival to confirm what has been done and to mark things off the list.
“So for me, I’m still working on some of what I call my special entertainment — my magicians, my special roaming artists and things like that, just trying to get all those finalized so we can get that schedule together.”
During last month’s first meeting of the Pickle Festival Committee, members discussed the need for increasing the festival footprint and expanding parking as well.
Work continues on both, but nothing has been finalized, Beck said.
“We are very much trying to figure that part out because before we can start placing and figuring out what all entertainment to bring in we have got to know exactly what our footprint is,” she said. “Our goal is to get that confirmed sooner than later so that we can press ahead.”
A new company has been contracted with to do the Pickle Festival maps.
The map will be on the festival brochure. The map will be larger this year — 11-inches by 17-inche — to make it more readable, she said.
The maps will be online as well.
Also in the works are QR codes that will be placed on what Beck is calling sandwich boards.
“You’ll be able to scan that, and I think we can pick out four or five key things that we want you to be able to have access to,” Beck said.
“You could go straight to the Pickle Festival website, but I think we’ve chosen to highlight some key things so that when you scan that QR code you’re automatically going to pull up what the band schedule is, what times special things like the pickle-eating contest are or whatever.”
The QR codes provide another option that organizers have not yet decided whether or not they will utilize, she said.
People could click on a button and download their Pickle Festival videos and photos that would all be dumped into a file that festival organizer would have access to, Beck said.
“So it’s kind of cool,” she said. “It’s kind of twofold. You’re getting information from us and you’re giving us information.”
Billboards have been ordered and the festival posters have arrived, she pointed out.
Beck just this week placed the order for festival T-shirts — the largest such order in the history of the Pickle Festival. Last year, the festival T-shirts sold out by 1 p.m.
This year the T-shirts will come in two designs — one will feature the Pickle Festival’s official royalty theme with the year 2023 on it and the other will feature the pickle mural, but with no year. Those can be sold year around, Beck said.
“Between the two, we normally order about 800 to 1000, and I’ve just ordered 1,800 — so more than twice the number of shirts because we sold out last year by one o’clock, and we know we got more people coming,” she said. “I am a little nervous placing that order.
“People are now going to have an option of two shirts, and I’ve also ordered pickle socks. They have little pickles on them. They have our N.C. Pickle Festival logo, not our royalty theme, but our generic logo so people can wear pickle socks wherever they go.”
Many years ago Pickle Festival merchandise included footies, but this is the first time “proper socks” will be sold, she said.
“We’re trying to get some more pickle products so that we can have more merchandise that people can buy and take a little bit of the Pickle Festival home with them,” Beck said.
For more information, visit ncpicklefest.org.
