Every April, Mount Olive, the self-proclaimed Pickle Capital of the World, hosts the North Carolina Pickle Festival, one of the country’s largest pickle celebrations. If you’re planning to go, you’ll find everything you need to know about the festival, like details about parking, food, shuttle buses, and more here.
For more help planning your trip, check out all of our posts about North Carolina.
Ever since we moved to North Carolina over a decade ago, I’ve wanted to go to the North Carolina Pickle Festival in Mount Olive. But, something always came up.
This year (2026), though, we made sure to go for the 40th annual festival.
It absolutely did not disappoint. It was filled with pickle-centric food and drinks, a pickle eating contest, bands, and Mount Olive’s giant pickle mascot named Ollie.
If you love pickles, and, let’s be honest, everyone does, you need to go to the pickle festival next year. For help planning, we have all the details here.
North Carolina Pickle Festival 2027 Dates & Details
- Dates: April 27, 2027
- Location: Downtown Mount Olive, NC
- Cost: Entrance to the festival is free and it’s free to watch the bands, but there is a cost for food and drinks.
Mount Olive Pickles History
Cucumbers are pretty easy to grow. Ask any home gardener and they’ll agree. There were so many growing in North Carolina in the 1920s that Shikrey Baddour, a Lebanese immigrant living in Goldsboro, figured there had to be a way to use them.
So he bought the bumper crop, called his buddy George Moore who had worked in a pickling plant, and tried to sell his pickled cucumbers. No one bought them.
Local businessman I.F. Witherington liked the idea, though, and in 1926, he got a few investors together to pack and sell pickles.
Witherington didn’t just steal Baddour’s idea, though. He hired him as a salesman and Moore as factory superintendent. He bought some land for a factory in Mount Olive, where it still stands today — 100 years later.
North Carolina Pickle Festival History
The first Pickle Festival was held in 1952, 26 years after Mount Olive’s pickle company was founded. The festival was sponsored by the Mount Olive Chamber of Commerce and was attended by over 5,000 people.
Despite the success, it wasn’t held again for another 35 years.
The festival came back in 1986, during Mount Olive’s 60th anniversary year, and was renamed the North Carolina Pickle Festival. It has been held annually since, with the exception of 2020. The following year, it was held as a mostly virtual event with a virtual 5K and an in-person drive-in movie for locals.
Our Experience At The Pickle Festival
We got to the Pickle Festival early — or so I thought. When we pulled into Mount Olive University, where there are shuttles to bring you to the festival, around 9:45 am and the parking lots were already packed. We got on the shuttle bus and it was so full, people waiting at other shuttle stops couldn’t get on.
When we got to downtown Mount Olive, we were immediately greeted by R & R Brewing’s staff handing out free samples of its dill pickle soda. It was actually way better than we expected.
We started walking down the main street of the festival and stopped at a vendor selling pickle lemonade, complete with a gherkin and pickle toothpick on top. I immediately ordered one.
It. Was. Amazing.
And I don’t even like lemonade that much. It’s usually so sweet and adding pickle juice to it just sounded weird, but this was delicious.
We walked off to the side area where there were kids rides and right up to the gorgeous Mount Olive pickle murals painted on a brick wall.
I had Pete take my photo there and, as he was, the nicest woman in a pickle costume came up, waiting to take a photo after me. I asked if she would take a photo with me and she happily said yes.
We kept walking on the main street, passing tons of food vendors selling various pickle foods, finally deciding to stop and try pickle spring rolls (well, it was advertised as pickle spring rolls, but I actually think it was technically pickle lumpia).
They were really good.
And then we walked to the other side of the street where we bumped back into R&R Brewing, but this iteration of the staff was selling alcohol, including its Pickletown light lager. Of course Pete had to get that. For research.
The alcohol tent was in the beer garden area that had a stage set up for bands, so we parked ourselves there and watched a little bit before walking off towards the Mount Olive tent, which was giving out free giant pickles, samples of pickled carrots (which were amazing!) and banana peppers.
I wanted to make sure I got the 40th Pickle Festival anniversary shirt, so I walked over to that stand while Pete walked back by the band to save us some spots.
And thank goodness he did because it seemed like the entire town had descended upon the festival and it got really crowded.
The beer line was so long, the line to get t-shirts was so long, and every food truck line was unbearable.
I was glad we got there as early as we did and were able to really enjoy the festival before the crowds.
Other than the crowds, we absolutely loved it. It’s the perfect small town festival.
Things To Do At The Pickle Festival
The Pickle Festival is split amongst two days. The first night, Friday, is a pre-party, which is mostly for locals. There’s a 5K glow run, the kids rides are running, there’s a band and a drone show.
The next day is the main festival. If you’re coming in from out of town, this is the day you want to visit.
It’s, mostly, vendor tents lining both sides of main street. Each vendor is required to sell something pickle-related, which is nice (because it wasn’t always like that). Jewelry vendors had pickle earrings, crafters had mugs with pickles on them, each food vendor had at least one item with pickles in it.
The array of pickle foods was more than we could have imagined.
There were fried pickles (as you would expect), pickle macaroni and cheese, and, my personal wild favorite: a pickle hot dog, where the bun was a pickle instead of bread.
I would have ordered that, but the lines for food were so long by the time I found that truck.
And of course, there was pickle dessert too.
We saw pickle sno cones, and instantly passed on the chocolate dipped pickles because that sounds like a pregnant woman’s dream and everyone else’s frankenfood.
There’s a main stage for bands and then a praise stage with bands playing worship music. There are carnival rides for kids and a petting zoo for kids, plus camel rides.
There is roaming entertainment, like a balloon man and musicians, and contests (like a pickle eating contest and a costume contest, which I hope my pickle-dressed friend won).
The Pickle Palace, a glorified souvenir shop, is open that day, but my best tip is stay away. It’s just a shop. And by the time crowds come in to the festival, you’re waiting over an hour on a line just to buy a Mount Olive branded sweatshirt.
You can do that at the consignment shop down the block. Literally.
Most people mistake the Pickle Palace for Mount Olive’s History Museum. More than one person told me it was, and that’s how I ended up on the line.
The history museum, however, is down the block from the main stage and is actually open to the public. So go there instead of the Pickle Palace unless you really need a t-shirt.
Tips For Visiting The Pickle Festival
Timing: The main part of the Pickle Festival starts at 9 am on Saturday and we suggest you get there as close to 9 am as possible. That way, you can be ahead of the crowds.
Parking: There is free parking at a few locations around Mount Olive including the university, Unity Baptist Church, Carver Elementary School, and Bobby Denning Realty. There’s a free shuttle that will pick you up at these locations and drop you off later.
There is paid parking around town, including private residences that will try to charge you to park. Some of those people were asking $20, so definitely park in the free lots and save your money for some pickle nachos (which yes, one of the food trucks was selling).
What To Bring: Bring cash and a credit card. Some vendors will only accept one or the other. The merch tent accepts both, but there was no line for cash and a long line to pay by card. So I paid cash for my festival tee and got in and out quick.
You also want to bring your patience. Remember, this is a small town and volunteers are doing their best to put on the best festival. But it is crowded and lines move slowly.
What To Wear: The entirety of the festival is outside, so you want to wear sunscreen so you don’t get burned. You’ll be walking a bit, so we also suggest wearing comfortable shoes.
You also might want to wear a hat (Pete did) to keep the sun off your face.
So many people dress up in pickle-related outfits, and I was really upset that I didn’t think to wear a green dress (or, at the very least, a green top) so I suggest you wear green.
More Spring Festivals In North Carolina:
The Pickle Festival is just one of the Tarheel state’s top spring festivals. For more, check out the North Carolina Azalea Festival in Wilmington, NC, which has been a staple in the Port City for over 75 years.
Neighboring Fayetteville is host to the Dogwood Festival, which is a really nice festival with live music and vendors.
Have you been to the North Carolina Pickle Festival before? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.