Planning is well underway for what may be Berrien County’s fastest growing summer festival.

The Berrien Springs Pickle Festival will once again be July 4 at the History Center at Courthouse Square. Berrien County Historical Association Director Rhiannon Cizon tells us when organizers of the Pickle Fest decided to bring it back after a long hiatus in 2021, they thought it might attract a good crowd, but the pickles proved more popular than previously predicted.

“So we’re like, maybe a few hundred people will show up,” Cizon said. “We’ll get like a couple dozen vendors. We have like 40 some vendors and like 1,500 people.”

Cizon says people like pickles, and the event is really putting Berrien Springs on the map.

“We are Berrien Springs. I mean, a lot of the tourists tend to stay on the coast. And why we go inland? We were hoping that maybe some of them would change their mind, and apparently we had about 7,500 last year.”

And they’re hoping to attract even more this year.

The Pickle Fest will feature a 5K, tons of pickles to eat, a Pickle Fling, Big Wheel races, the Flamm Pickle & Packing Company Relish Eating Contest, and the dunk tank with proceeds going to Friends of Berrien County Animal Services.

Mark July 4 on your calendar to relish the fun at what will surely be a big dill at the Pickle Festival in Berrien Springs.