Festival offers more than cured cukes

By Sara Greene

LITTLE ROCK — David Lindsey, vice president of People for a Better Atkins, said the 17th Picklefest celebration this weekend is more important than ever since the Feb. 5 tornado turned residents’ lives upside down.

“We needed to go ahead and celebrate our coming together after the storm,” Lindsey said.

Picklefest begins at noon Friday and will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

It’s not the first time the fate of the festival has been questioned. When the pickle plant in Atkins closed five year ago, some residents pondered if they should change the name.

“Picklefest started 17 years ago because we wanted to come up with a community event, and Atkins has always been the pickle company of the world. People kind of balked at changing the name when the plant closed,” Lindsey said.

Lindsey, who is in charge of the pickle-eating and pickle juice-drinking contest at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, said he estimates that approximately 10,000 people pour into downtown Atkins for the annual celebration. His work starts today helping set up electricity and water for booths at the event. Lindsey said about one-third of the 200 vendors are local arts and crafts, and the remainder are commercial vendors and concessions.

“We try to listen to people and make the festival what they want. We’re a traditional-type city, and people like to keep things thissame. This year there will be blooming onions, and we’re not sure how it will go over,” Lindsey said.

Blooming onions are sliced, deep-fried onions served with dipping sauces.

“I like the continuous entertainment, visiting with my neighbors and people that I haven’t seen in a while,” Lindsey said.

Picklefest, along with other fundraisers throughout the year, help provide scholarships and about 200 food baskets at Christmas.

“It is a community-oriented festival. We want to promote the city of Atkins as the best of our community, and that small communities can do big things,” Lindsey said.

Doyle Cook, president of People for a Better Atkins, organizes the rodeo and the parade. The rodeo is 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Atkins Riding Arena on Arkansas 105, and the parade begins at 1 p.m. Saturday.

“We’ll have about 50 to 75 horse riders, along with antique tractors, antique cars, the AtkinsHigh School band, George Bailey, who is the Atkins Citizen of the Year, as well as Little Miss Sweet Pickle and Little Mr. Dill Pickle,” Cook said.

The parade route starts at Atkins High School, goes downtown on Main Street, to Arkansas 105, then to Seventh Street, past the Atkins Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center, and back to the high school.

Jack George has been coordinating music and live entertainment for the past five years of the festival. Live entertainment begins at 1 p.m. Friday afternoon and continues all day Saturday. Country music entertainment this year includes the All Together band, Hoyle Adams and Friends, Bobby Jones, Kimberly Bradley and Kyla Horton. Gospel music groups include the River Valley Messengers, Heaven’s Jubilee, the Oak Grove Singers,Troubled Water and Flashback, which is a contemporary Christian group from Conway. The Konway Kickers clogging group and Dance and Twirl dancers will be performing too, all on the stage in the middle of the festival.

“I like the diversity; there’s every different kind of entertainment and every different kind of food, and whatever your taste is, you can find it at the festival,” George said.

There will train rides for little ones, along with turtle races, pony rides, a petting zoo and Jamel the Magician. There is also bingo, 3-on-3 basketball, horse shoes, a tractor pull and rock-climbing wall.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 68 on 05/15/2008