Safety part of planning for festival

“The number one thing we consider is what is safe for everybody, our attendees, our participants (and) our vendors,” Beck said.

In 2022, the festival partnered with members of the University of Mount Olive Society, Law and Justice Association, said Lynn Williams, festival co-chairperson.

There were six crowd management stations at key locations of the festival perimeter that were manned by students and advisers, Williams said.

The festival has six evacuation location shelters for the public to use if there is adverse weather or another larger problem that requires the need for sheltering people at the festival, Beck said.

There are also six entry and exit points for the festival, she said.

The festival map has locations marked with a red square that identifies the emergency shelters.

On the map, the festival is broken down into five different colored zones, with two emergency shelters in the children’s zone, she said.

“Of course, if you’re not (from here), maybe you’re from Florida or Georgia, maybe you have no idea what these zones are but you can look and see each of these colors is a zone,” Beck said.

Not only does the festival have colored zones and emergency shelters, but there is a risk management plan, as well as a safety committee, she said.

The safety committee includes the mayor, town manager, festival organizers, firefighters and police and involves members preparing for a variety of safety needs that could take place during the festival.

The festival planners have also taken out extra insurance, ranging from $5,000 to $10,000, for the two-day event, on April 28 and April 29, she said.

Festival planners also have a Wayne County Management Team, as well as a rescue squad onsite and a command station with the police department located inside and outside of the footprint of the festival, she said.

In addition to keeping festival goes safe, volunteers take crowd control management training, which Beck has just retaken and received her certificate, she said.

The crowd control management training is a free, online course offered by the Office of the State Fire Marshal, Williams said.

According to national and state fire codes, public events with more than 1,000 people require trained crowd managers. For every 250 people, there should be at least one crowd manager, she said.

“That becomes a really big number when you consider that festival attendance can exceed 40,000 people,” she said.

Prior to the festival, the N.C. Pickle Festival committee will review the incident plan created by the Mount Olive Assistant Fire Chief Jordan Hansen and will also complete additional training on two-way radios, Williams said.

“This is all part of our risk management plan that we review and update every year and we update it to the day of the festival,” Beck said. “We want people to have a good time but be safe.”