For the love of pickles
By Steve Herring
Published in News on April 24, 2016 1:45 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Ethan, 7, and Gavin, 9, Bergund sample some Mt. Olive Pickle Company Products during the North Carolina Pickle Festival Saturday. The brothers both prefer the original pickle spears over any of the other products.
MOUNT OLIVE -- Gracie Hatch can't wait to get back to school Monday and ask her classmate what they did over the weekend. She is betting none will be able to top her Saturday morning camel ride.
"I rode a camel over the weekend. What did you do?" Gracie said she plans to ask her friends.
Others can say they sped down the street on the pickle train, watched a race featuring a seven-foot pickle or witnessed an eating competition in which an average-sized woman left a field of big men cleaning up the crumbs.
And those events barely scratch the surface of everything that the 30th annual North Carolina Pickle Festival had to offer.
Gracie, 10, a student at Carver Elementary, said she had ridden a horse before, but never a camel. She said she was not afraid riding the camel.
"We were walking down there, and then I saw two camels behind that trailer over there and it was like, 'I have got to ride a camel. It is going to be the most amazing thing ever,'" Gracie said. "So we walked around, saw the dance competition, and Dad said he was going to walk me back around to ride the camel.
"It was kind of smooth and kind of bumpy. It was like riding a horse. It was weird because I thought I was riding a horse, but when I looked down I saw the camel's head, and I was like, 'Oh, right. I'm riding a camel."
Neighbors Barbara Tempar and Christina Correll of Goldsboro were waiting on their children who were riding carnival rides. Mrs. Templar was busy eating a turkey leg while Mrs. Correll was holding her son's giant blow-up pickle.
"We have walked everywhere," Mrs. Tempar said. "All of the kids were on the rides, and of course, I got my turkey leg. We went to the car show."
"I like it," Mrs. Correll said. "It is very Americana. It is a small-town feel, and I love it. It feels safe when you are walking around. You just enjoy seeing people you know. The kids love it -- the games, the rides, the popcorn, the food. It is starting to get crowded, but it's not too bad.
"The weather has turned out wonderful. We thought it was going to rain, but we got lucky and got some sunshine. It is beautiful. We got here when they opened up at 9 o'clock this morning."
The festival got off to shaky start Friday night when heavy rains and a thunderstorm forced cancellation of the RaeLynn concert at the Mount Olive Airport,
While her fans didn't get to hear "The Voice" alum sing, the few brave souls who stuck it out to the end got to have their photo taken with her when she made a brief appearance in the airport terminal.
It was cloudy Saturday morning and by 6:30 a.m. vendors were busy setting up their booths and by early afternoon there were few if any parking spaces to be found within at least a quarter of a mile of downtown.
"It was a little disappointing with the weather last night," said Julie Beck, Pickle Festival Co-chair and president of the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce that sponsors the festival. "We tried our best to make it happen. But we are excited today. We have a lot of sunshine.
"The crowd is starting to pick up. We have a lot of new things. It is going to be great day, and I think it is going to be a next festival. We have expanded our second car show down here. We have two Model A car clubs to come, which his really exciting."
Along with all of the entertainment and activities, the festival provides a great opportunity for local groups and churches to hold fundraisers, Ms. Beck said.
"We know they count on that every year to have that opportunity to raise that, and it is great for us to be able to provide that opportunity for them to do that," she said. "We want to help them succeed because it makes our community a better place when we all can bring in extra funds to give back and make it a better place to live, work and play."
And play they did -- from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The Cuke Patch 5K run got the festival off to a fast start at 8 a.m. from Kornegay Arena on the University of Mount Olive campus.
The annual Tour de Pickle, with rides of 25 miles, 53 miles or 75 miles had staggered starts five minutes apart, beginning at 9:30 a.m. at the Mt. Olive Pickle Co. Distribution Center on the Old Mount Olive Highway.
At 9 a.m., 25 people representing 21 countries, including Australia, South Africa, Russia and Peru, became new U.S. citizens during a naturalization ceremony at Town Hall.
By then, downtown was beginning to fill with tens of thousands of festival-goers.
Both sides of the 200 block of North Center Street were lined by approximately 200 classic cars during the 30th annual Wayne County Cruisers Pickle Festival Car Show. A portion of the proceeds from the show will be donated to Kitty Askins Hospice Center in Goldsboro.
Nearby on West James Street the Eastern Carolina Vintage Farm Equipment Club had vintage tractors on display.
Vendors filled both sides of the 100 blocks of South and North Center street, West James Street and the alleyway behind Center Street.
Three stages provided a variety of entertainment.
Brinkley Entertainment had carnival rides set up in the parking lot across from Steele Memorial Library.
At noon competitors in the Hwy 55 Challenge took the stage to do battle for gastronomic glory.
Molly Schuyler, from California, finished off a 55-ounce burger with four toppings, around 7 ounces of fries, and a 24-ounce drink in 1 minute 54 seconds, topping her time last year 2 minutes and 12 seconds.
Next door to the Hwy 55 Challenge cooks were preparing their entries in the festival's first chili cook-off.
Also new this year was an Artisan Village featuring the work of local professional artisans.