Dill-icious Adventures at the NC Pickle Festival
Pickles in lemonade? Chocolate on pickles?! I spent the day at the NC Pickle Festival in Mount Olive, where small-town charm meets briny chaos. Come for the free pickles, stay for the churro ice cream and surprisingly passionate pickle lovers.
Every town has its signature street festival—that joyful mix of live music, craft booths, and the sweet scent of funnel cakes in the air. But in Mount Olive, North Carolina, they add a delicious twist: pickles. Lots and lots of pickles. 🥒
A couple of weekends ago, I headed to the NC Pickle Festival, and while it had the familiar energy of a classic small-town fair, the pickle flair made it a uniquely fun experience.
A Little History of the NC Pickle Festival
The NC Pickle Festival has been a Mount Olive tradition since 1986, and it started as a way to celebrate the town’s most famous export: pickles. Specifically, the pickles from the beloved Mt. Olive Pickle Company, which has been making pickled cucumbers—and later peppers and relishes—since 1926. Now, almost 40 years since the first pickle celebration, the festival has grown into one of North Carolina’s quirkiest and most charming annual events, attracting tens of thousands of visitors to this small town every spring.
From humble beginnings with a few community booths, it’s now a full-on street party with live entertainment 🎶, a pickle-eating contest 😋, a tractor show 🚜, and endless opportunities to sample and celebrate all things pickle.
© 2025 Lia Ballentine
Nestled in Wayne County, Mount Olive is a town of about 4,000 people, and it’s safe to say that pickles put it on the map. The Mt. Olive Pickle Company remains the town’s largest employer and a big point of pride. Even if you’ve never visited, there’s a good chance you’ve seen those bright green and yellow jars lining grocery store shelves nationwide. Beyond pickles, Mount Olive has a rich agricultural history and a friendly, tight-knit community vibe—the kind of place where the festival feels less like a big event and more like a giant hometown reunion.
Pickle-Themed Fun (and Foodie Adventures)
One of the best parts of the NC Pickle Festival is seeing just how creative people get with the pickle theme. Of course, Mount Olive was handing out free pickles (no complaints there!), and booths were stocked with pickle-themed merch— everything from pickle socks to pickle Christmas ornaments. (I sort of regret not buying a pickle bucket hat while I was there. It was the perfect mix of silly and stylish.)
But it was the pickle foods that really caught my attention. Throughout the day, I tasted some truly surprising pickle-centric treats, including pickle lemonade and chocolate-covered pickles. The pickle lemonade was good—sweet and tangy, but not sour. I think the sugar outweighed the pickle juice. 😂 But the chocolate-covered pickles? Well, watch this... 👇
Beyond the pickle experiments, the festival delivered all the classic fair staples— fried Oreos, turkey legs, and towering funnel cakes—a perfect mix of comforting indulgence and unexpected, pickle-powered surprises. And after the, uh, bold flavor of the chocolate-covered pickles, we needed a palate reset. Enter the “churro roll” with ice cream from one of the vendors—sweet, warm, melty, and exactly what our taste buds needed to recover.
© 2025 Lia Ballentine
Final Thoughts
If you love pickles—or just love a good small-town festival with lots of heart—the NC Pickle Festival is absolutely worth a visit. It’s a reminder that sometimes the quirkiest celebrations are the most memorable.
And while not every pickle concoction won me over, spending the day surrounded by so much creativity (and so many pickles) was a total delight. Until next year, Mount Olive—keep it briny!