The town of St. Joe, Indiana kicked off its 25th annual Pickle Festival on Thursday, beginning the three days of festivities with food, vendors and a pickle derby.
Last year, the festival was canceled due to COVID-19, making it the 25th year of the Pickle Festival, but only their 24th celebration.
“My phone rang off the hook after they greenlighted everything to start happening again,” said Jeffrey Studebaker, the Pickle Festival president. “‘Hey, you having the festival?’ I said, well, of course we are.”
On Thursday night, community members showed up to eat, shop and play games on the grounds of Riverdale Elementary School. At one corner, the St. Joe-Spencerville Lions Club served ice cream, including a bright green pickle flavor.
Typically, the festival is coupled with an amateur Art and Photo Contest and Show inside of the school. Due to COVID restrictions, the show was moved to the St. Joe Church of Christ next to the festival.
The contest categorizes entries into youth and adult and separates work into different categories and mediums. Many of the entries took inspiration from the festival itself.
Studebaker said the festival started as a town festival, but decided it needed a theme.
“Sechler’s Pickles being a hometown fixture,” Studebaker said. “They went with the pickles.”
Sechler’s Pickles had its own booth inside of the vendor tent, selling specialty jars of various pickles with sale prices for festival goers.
The festival continues until Saturday night, when it will close with a parade at 1 PM and fireworks at 10 p.m.
