Festival-goers relish N.C. Pickle Festival

“I’m here to defend my title and beat him,” said Carter Alford, who claimed the 2022 pickle eating contest trophy.

“I’m here to beat my brother,” said Troy Alford. “It’s a brotherly competition.”

Even though he only won the competition once, he said he hoped to win the bragging rights again.

Other competitors entered the contest for other reasons.

“I love pickles,” said Joyel Miller, who ate nine pickles and won second place in this year’s contest.

This year’s winner — Cole Lambert — took the prize after downing 13 dill pickles in five minutes.

“I love pickles and I can eat a lot, figured it was perfect for me,” Lambert said.

The festival, a highlight for the southern Wayne County town each year, also had other events including a pickle costume contest, a pickle recipe contest, the pickle packing contest as well as a wide variety of pickled-flavored foods and plenty of free pickles provided by the Mt. Olive Pickle Co., headquartered in Mount Olive.

A variety of vendors were on hand selling different foods from grilled and barbecue chicken to Asian-inspired foods, Italian shaved ice, lemonade and ice cream. Also sold this year were candied grapes, which are grapes that are frozen before being dipped in candy coating similar to candy apples before they are covered in Nerds.

Vendors also sold arts and crafts and raffles for prizes, like the North Carolina Lottery.

N.C. Lottery sold lottery tickets for $7 and for each ticket purchased, festival goers would receive a free spin, allowing them to spin for prizes such as a tumbler or an insulated, cooler tote.

First-time vendor Terri Johnson of Cattle Dog Crafts, from Winston-Salem, heard about the N.C. Pickle Festival and came to sell crafts for dogs as well as people.

“We like to do a lot of the festivals just around the state,” Johnson said. “We also go up to South Carolina and Virginia.”

Johnson, and her husband, Tim, try to attend two or three festivals each month, she said.

Vendors like Antoinette’s Taste of Country from Warsaw has been a regular at the festival, which it has attended five or six times, said Patrice Fields, owner of the restaurant, which sells ribs, chicken, burgers and hot dogs.

“I like the people and the music, of course,” Fields said, of the festival.

Krystal Mitchell drove into Mount Olive for the festival from Wilson with a friend. She said she was looking forward to trying out the festival foods.

“She actually invited me, I never been here before,” Mitchell said.

The festival also offered plenty of activities for children as well as a variety of entertainment.

Live bands and dancers performed across three stages on the corner of South Center Street and East Main Street, South Center Street and West College Street, and off West James Street. There were also carnival rides on West Main Street, and games and bouncy slides in the children’s corner on the corner of South Center Street and West Pollock Street. The popular pickle train also offered rides across the street.

The two-day festival kicked off Friday night on April 28 and included a free concert from the Steel County Band, the Cuke Patch 5K Glow Run, pay-one-price carnival rides and a butterfly garden.

The main festival on Saturday, April 29, featured main events like the mascot race, the Tour de Pickle bike ride, Pickleball Tournament and helicopter rides as well as the Wayne County Cruisers Car Show, vintage farm and tractor equipment.