If you find yourself in a pickle for last-minute New Year’s Eve plans, look no further than Mount Olive, North Carolina.

After overcoming a public health crisis and severe weather in nonconsecutive years, the Mount Olive Pickle Co. will resume its New Year's Eve pickle drop on Sunday.

What You Need To Know

  • The Mount Olive Pickle Co. was formed in 1926

  • The New Year's Eve pickle drop started in 1999

  • It was ranked among the top 10 New Year's Eve drops by USA Today

The event was rated No. 7 in the top 10 drops by USA Today this week.

Public relations manager Lynn Williams said the company makes over 100 flavors on site and manufactures more than 300 million jars of deliciousness in a year.

“We’re kind of on people’s bucket list for how to celebrate New Year’s Eve and it’s really cool. It’s really cool,” Williams said.

Whether it’s a tasty addition with a sandwich or a bite all by itself, Mount Olive pickles have been the real dill in North Carolina since 1926.

“We just have a lot of folks that are in town or in East Carolina for the weekend and think it’s a hoot to come to the pickle drop,” she said. “I’ve always been amazed at the reaction the pickle drop gets.”

Williams should know because she has been with the company since the event started in 1999.

“We have this wonderful archive of pictures back in the day,” Williams said as she pointed to a black-and-white photograph on the wall at company headquarters.

Williams is a history lover, especially when talking about her employer for the last 24 years.

“We've had generations of people who have worked at Mount Olive Pickle and generations of families who’ve been here,” she said.

Fast forward to the world in living color and the thousands who drive to the town for a once-in-a-year event.

“I mean if you can’t laugh about a pickle, then what is there to laugh about?” Williams said.

What started as a joke in 1999 has become so much more.

“1999 started on a lark as the pickle of the millennium,” she said.

The annual pickle drop now draws global attention.

“It’s amazing where people come from,” Williams said.

The first year it was open to the public was 2001. Williams said 250 people showed up in the dark that night to see a plastic pickle descend onto the corner of Vine and Cucumber boulevard at the headquarters.

“To see a pickle come down the pole, and we were amazed that people had the same weird sense of humor that we did,” she said.

The drop was moved to the University of Mount Olive in 2019 because they had a huge construction project at the main plant.

Crowds will start gathering at 5 p.m. Sunday in front of the university’s Kornegay Center, and the pickle will descend at 7 p.m. sharp.

Williams said the company asks the viewers to bring canned foods or a financial contribution. The company gives the canned goods to the Food Bank of Eastern and Central North Carolina. For those who can’t make it, there’s going to be a livestream. 

Event details

  • Where: University of Mount Olive, 634 Henderson St., Mount Olive, N.C., in front of the George and Annie Dail Kornegay Arena
  • Parking: Anywhere on campus, handicapped parking will be available
  • Food trucks will be available at 5 p.m., and the live music also starts at 5 p.m.
  • The pickle drops at 7 p.m.
  • Fireworks will begin immediately after the pickle lands in the jar.
  • Free pickles are available courtesy Mount Olive Pickle Co.
  • Bring canned food or financial contribution for Food Bank of Central & Eastern N.C. and receive a ticket for a door prize drawing. The grand prize is a pickle like the one that is dropped, without the lights.
  • Bring your own chairs.