The annual Morgan Hill Mushroom Festival is set to return May 24-25 at the Morgan Hill Downtown Amphitheater and surrounding area, bringing with it an enhanced focus on community involvement and educational scholarships while celebrating the region’s fungal heritage.
The festival, which has been running since 1980, serves primarily as a fundraiser for high school senior scholarships and local nonprofit organizations.
“Our mission statement is ‘Empowering the advancement of education through scholarships raised by our annual Mushroom Festival,’” said Dan Keith, president of the festival’s Board of Directors for the past three years.
The festival began originally as a fundraiser for local firefighters before transitioning to its current focus on education scholarships. Last year, the festival distributed about $40,000 in scholarships to local high school seniors, and a similar amount to community organizations in the form of monetary donations.
Keith described the personal impact of being involved with the scholarship selection process as heartwarming.
“I was personally able to go out and interview every one of the scholars this year, and it was something that filled my heart,” he said. “These kids are really learning, our schools have really good programs and some of these kids have 4.5 GPAs. It warmed my heart to know that we were giving these kids these scholarships. It made it all worth it. The juice was really worth the squeeze.”
The festival has undergone significant changes since the COVID-19 pandemic nearly ended the decades-long tradition, but is now back with a renewed focus on quality and security.
“When I took it over, the festival was kind of on its way out,” Keith said. “It was right after COVID. We had to contain it by fencing it in to provide a safe environment for quality entertainment and a quality festival.”
This year’s event will feature the return of a dedicated kids zone, branded as “Munchkin Land,” which will include carnival rides from Butler Amusement as well as attractions such as a funhouse and rock wall, as well as “waterballers”—clear inflatable spheres that float on shallow water.
Entertainment will include performances by Heart By Heart on Saturday. Sunday’s lineup includes local musician Shane Dwight, who grew up in Morgan Hill before moving to Nashville. Dwight is returning with his seven-piece band, which includes former members of the Beach Boys. Other performers include Entourage, Soul Kiss, SuperBad, and The Neverland Band, among others.
The festival is renewing its focus on local businesses rather than national brands. “We’ve really brought it back to being focused on local, community-based companies, rather than the larger-scale companies like Budweiser that we did before,” said Heather Moggia, Morgan Hill Mushroom Festival Director.
Food vendors will offer creative mushroom dishes including mushroom popsicles and upside-down mushroom cheesecake prepared by a celebrity chef. Mystic Mushroom Cafe will be among the vendors, with offerings of mushroom-infused beverages like coffee, tea and hot chocolate.
Local restaurants Cochi’s Kitchen and Craft Roots will participate in cooking demonstrations.
“These chefs are going to be doing demos at our festivals, and they’re local celebrities in some sense, because people know them and love them,” Moggia said.
The festival will also feature local microbreweries and wineries, with Kelly Brewing highlighted as a prominent local participant. The Bay Area Panthers professional indoor football team will make an appearance as well.
A Mushroom Educational Display and Exhibit sponsored by the Western Mushroom Growers Association will be located in the Rose Garden of the Community & Cultural Center. Visitors can learn about mushroom cultivation and health benefits, purchase growing kits and even sample mushroom beer.
Festival organizers emphasize the community aspect of the event, with more than 300 volunteers helping to run the festivities. Local nonprofits staff the festival, selling tickets and working beer and wine stations. High school students assist with setup, while the football team handles loading and unloading.
“Most of our scholarship recipients are also volunteering in one way or another to promote the festival,” Moggia said.
The festival will feature handcrafted artists and crafters, gourmet food booths, an acoustic stage, strolling musicians and street performers, beer and wine gardens and a commercial marketplace.
Free parking is available surrounding the festival, including at the Park and Ride Lot on Butterfield between Dunne and Main, as well as in the Fourth Street parking garage. For a $10 donation to the Sobrato Band Boosters, attendees can park at the lot on the corner of San Pedro and Church Street and take a free shuttle to the entrance. Handicap parking and wheelchair-accessible shuttles are also available.
Organizers hope to continue expanding the event in future years.
“We’re excited about it this year, with it changing and ever growing,” Keith said. “We want it to continue to grow, and hopefully next year we can grow a little bit bigger. This is something that we’re working on behind the scenes, trying to expand this thing.”
Moggia hopes to raise awareness about the organization’s educational mission, emphasising the festival’s primary purpose as a fundraiser, not merely a party for partying’s sake.
“So many people don’t know it’s a scholarship foundation, they just thought it was a festival that the city puts on, but it has nothing to do with the city,” she said. “I decided we need to really spread the word that it is a scholarship foundation program, not a for-profit festival.”
For Keith, the community impact makes all the effort worthwhile.
“I was told no, we couldn’t have this festival, a couple of times,” he said. “We worked really hard to bring it back. When it actually came to fruition here, it was like wow, this is a heck of an accomplishment. And I didn’t do it by myself. Without Heather, without the rest of the Board of Directors, and without every single volunteer in Morgan Hill, it couldn’t happen. I just hope that I can share the gratitude that I feel.”
Festival organizers remind attendees that pets are not permitted at the event, with the exception of service animals.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit morganhillmushroomfestival.org.
