PickleFest draws sellout crowd in Durham

"I love pickles, and I think our hipster city of Durham would be into pickles," Sarah Mackiewicz, director of operations at the Rickhouse, said on why they decided on the pickle-themed festival. "It just started with the intention to bring people into this space who wouldn't get the chance to."

Nearly 800 people showed up for 2019's festival and were each able to try different types of pickled dishes, like pickled slaw, pickled tomatoes, pickled peach gummies and cucumber-dill ice cream.

To quench your thirst during the event, vendors offered pickled beer, each of which were infused with vinegars from fruits and herbs, and a Bloody Mary bar. The Bloody Mary bar has been a staple at the event for each of the five years, but the organizers try to add something new to the event every year, like an Indian pickling vendor called the Spice Bazaar who made their PickleFest debut Sunday.

"Pickling is something that is in every culture of food, so we try to incorporate lots of different cultures and food types," Mackiewicz said.

General admission tickets were $10 and all proceeds benefited Durham Central Park. For the third year in a row, tickets for the event sold out before the day of the event.

"We’re helping (Durham Central Park) to create these community events that will support the growth of Durham," Machiewicz said. "The whole goal with PickleFest is to create these community events, it’s just another way to bring people together. The goal every year is to increase what we can donate, and every year we’ve been able to do that so far."

PickleFest has been fundraising for the park for the last four years and doesn't charge their vendors a penny.

"We don’t charge our vendors at all, they’re just here sampling, so hopefully it’s helping them get a leg up on selling some products," Mackiewicz said.

With the amount of success the festival has garnered in each of its first five years, Mackiewicz anticipates that it will continue to be a Durham tradition for years to come.

"As long as there’s that challenge of how we can one-up last year and make it better," she said.