Note: Soul Sessions is produced as a podcast first and designed to be listened to. If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes the emotion and inflection meant to be conveyed by human voice. Our transcripts are created using human transcribers, but may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting.

PAUL:

Get ready for a delicious adventure at the Mississippi Ag and Forestry Museum on June 8.

Hey, it's Paul Wolf with a front row seat to conversations on culture from Jackson, Mississippi. We call our podcast Soul Sessions. It's the people, places, and events that make the City With Soul shine. On today's episode, Justin Nipper, the marketing and events manager at the Ag Museum, gives us a look at Pickle Fest. It's an event that's drawing record interest this year for its brine-soaked celebration of all things pickled.

Justin, just being honest though, I'm not a big fan of pickles, but over 14 ,000 people on Facebook apparently are. That's how many people have indicated interested in the Facebook event. Holy cow. What are you going to do?

JUSTIN:

Yeah. we'll see. Well, you know, that number, 14,000, even 10,000, triples the number that we've seen even last year, which is great. It's a great problem to have. I wouldn't even say it's a problem yet. I mean, it's a great opportunity that we have to host. One thing that's pretty interesting about Pickle Fest is it always blows me away how many people, like you're saying, they want to see everything pickled. They want to see it on pizzas. They want to see it in drinks. They want to see it, you know, in banana pudding if they could get it. I mean, just really just anything. Thinking about the guests, you know, as they come to attend the event, we've had to up the ante on everything. Every detail from parking to standing in line to go into the event to even the experience you have in the event with it being June, super hot, very hot. We have to think about that too, how to accommodate the variety of vendors, the people, where they can be, how they can cool off, how they can use the restroom.

PAUL:

Yeah, food and security and bathrooms and buying tickets. You shared a video that's at visitjackson.com, how to pickle fest. It's almost funny to say we're not really on here trying to invite more people to pickle fast. I mean, sure, come on, but this is kind of a way to help set expectations. So would you quickly go through some tips for June 8 for Picklefest?

JUSTIN:

I can definitely do that. And we'll start from you leaving your house and what you'll see as you approach the museum. So something that we've done this year that's new is we're lining Lakeland Drive with directional signage to help people know where they can park, help people know where they can park if there's overflow parking. So we're trying to over communicate visually, even as you pull up to our museum, where to go. Now signs are easily missed sometimes and that's why we also have volunteers in parking lots that are going to help direct you to a parking space. You know, we have people that travel from out of state to come to this event, and I definitely want to help them find a parking space as best as we can.

PAUL:

Bottom line, don't expect to park in the Ag Museum parking lot necessarily.

JUSTIN:

That's right. You'll have the regular event parking is in Smith Wills parking lot right there next to the museum. And then we've added the North Jackson youth baseball fields as a parking lot. We have some great partners in the city that have helped make that happen for us. And so I'm very thankful for them.

PAUL:

All right, Justin, tip number two.

JUSTIN:

There is a good chance that you're going to park in overflow parking space. So we do have shuttle stops and this is kind of tip two and three. Yeah, there are shuttle stops and then you need to also be aware that you might get on one. If you have a strollers or bags or anything like that, just be ready to potentially get on one and take a short trip down Lakeland to the admissions. We added an admission at our forestry bridge, which is located next to the crawdad hole. And then nobody likes standing in lines. And, a lot of times for us, we'll have 1,000, 2,000 people show up at one time and there will be a line, but that line moves very, very quickly. The unique thing about the secondary point of entry is for a fast pass and that's a very new thing for us. Basically, once you get out of your car, you'll be able to see opportunities to go ahead and scan a code, purchase your ticket, and then once you've purchased your ticket online, all you have to do for this fast pass is go to the forestry entrance, show that proof of purchase, walk right in.

PAUL:

Come back of the decade, the QR code, aren't we thankful?

JUSTIN:

Yes, very thankful.

PAUL:

What's next, Justin? What are our next tips to help us make the best out of Pickle Fest?

JUSTIN:

Now that you've braved the crowd, you've made it into the spaces, you've got to our entrance point and you're in, we do have things to help accommodate for that heat. And so another tip was that we do have water activities. And even this year we're working on a mister to put in the road for people to walk under. But, you know, there are multiple water slides and one big one, one little one, you know, for the kids too. And so, me as a parent or as an adult that wants to get… getting some water, whatever it is, you know, just be ready to do that, to get wet and to know that you will be wet. So wear clothes to do that in.

PAUL:

This is going to be a full day. I know that you all have been working on this now for weeks with the anticipated larger crowd than usual. What's kind of that one last thing that you would say to people if they're planning to come to Pickle Fest on June 8 at the Ag Museum, what other little piece of parting advice can you give them here?

JUSTIN:

Yeah, I'll say this: this is a unique event and it's a unique family event that is almost as if you would, you could say it's a combination of a large farmer's market and a music festival in that there are, there's music happening on a big stage. All throughout the day, there are contests that are happening. And so this is something that, you know, when you come, you definitely want to be aware that it's outside, there is inside portions. You want to be prepared for that with like hats, sunscreen, stuff like that. And then just to be ready to walk around the museum. I mean, we have 40 acres and so, you know, and this event encompasses most of it, you know. So be ready to walk, be ready to check out all these local crafters and food vendors. And I've personally told every single vendor that I've talked to and tried to help them know about this event and to come up with unique things for the guests. So come up with something fun, come up with something unique.

PAUL:

Yeah, and patience probably is the opportune word for the day, right?

JUSTIN:

Yeah, patience, patience for sure.

PAUL:

Justin, this seems to be a running phenomenon for Jackson events. Tabitha Brown sold out in February. JXN Food and Wine sold out in March. There were 5,000 people at Makers Fest earlier this month. So it's evident to me, I mean, we want to see these events in the City With Soul.

JUSTIN:

The people are speaking without a doubt. And a lot of that is even our local scene, like in our neighboring cities, you know, Mississippians are a big fan of this. And especially with these festivals, I can definitely speak for that. Like I have friends that are involved at Makers Fest and I was happy to go out and see that and support them and you can just see a lot of locals even. At least for me, like I walked around and just about every time I made a turn, there was somebody I've seen before. But then on the flip side of it, having done one myself with Pickle Fest, I have had a lot of people from like Louisiana and Alabama, Georgia, a lot of our neighboring states that have their ears to the ground for what's going on in Jackson. They are connected with what's happening here in our city. And that's such a positive thing. It's such a positive reflection of Jackson. Just the events are portraying the city in a positive light, which is so huge. And I'm happy that even we get to help contribute in some way for that.

PAUL:

That's Justin Nipper at the Mississippi Ag Museum talking about June 8's Pickle Fest. If you missed any of that advice on how to make the most of the day, you can head to the show notes in this episode for more and for the latest info.

Soul Sessions is produced by Visit Jackson, the destination organization for Mississippi's capital city. Our executive producers are Jonathan Pettus and Dr. Ricky Thigpen, and I'm our managing editor. If you want to know more about the great work we're doing here to make the City With Soul shine, you can find all of that at VisitJackson.com.

I'm Paul Wolf, and you've been listening to Soul Sessions.

Listen to previous episodes of Soul Sessions