Sunshine and warm air cleared the way for a record-breaking
crowd of festival-goers during the Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras
this weekend.
Morgan Hill
Sunshine and warm air cleared the way for a record-breaking crowd of festival-goers during the Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras this weekend.
The annual arts and crafts, music and food festival attracted an estimated 65,000 to 70,000 revelers, an increase of about 50 percent from last year, event manager Sunday Minnich estimated.
“The weather was great, and I think people are staying closer to home,” Minnich said.
The Mardi Gras, in its 30th year, occupied the Community and Cultural Center at the corner of Monterey Road and Dunne Avenue, and Depot Street from Monterey to the Caltrain station at Third Street. Two music stages showcased a variety of bands, singer-songwriters, and a drum circle both Saturday and Sunday.
Minnich said the addition of a second food court at the newly paved Depot parking lot allowed for better flow of the crowd.
“I think we finally got our layout perfect,” Minnich said.
And for many attendees the festival was a good chance for the family to have fun. Katie McGinty-Ruiz of Morgan Hill was nibbling on a serving of grilled corn-on-the-cob with her daughter Sofia, 2, on her shoulders.
“It’s very family friendly. We’ve enjoyed the jump houses,” McGinty-Ruiz said Saturday, with her husband Ray Ruiz by her side.
The annual festival, which started out as a fundraiser for the now nonexistent Morgan Hill Fire Department, raises money for scholarships to local high school students. The MMG committee was able to give away about $40,000 in scholarships with revenue raised at the 2008 festival.
And Sullivan said this year the festival committee started a separate fund to provide grants to local elementary schools.
Plus, Morgan Hill Unified schools and their sports teams, as well as other student organizations, use the festival as an opportunity to raise money.
Live Oak High School softball team members cooked stuffed portabello mushrooms and barbecued oysters for sale at one booth, and their parents sold glasses of local wine at another.
“The money we raise here is for field maintenance and to do some work on our batting cages,” said head coach Alex Sutton. This is the first year the softball team has sponsored a booth at the festival.
Sullivan noted that for many nonprofit groups, who were well-represented this year, their MMG booths produce their biggest fundraising events each year, and such groups are encouraged to participate in the festival.
Britton Middle School sold sausage sandwiches and stuffed mushrooms, the LOHS band sold parking spaces, and numerous other organizations manned informational booths to get the word out about their respective causes.
While Ann Sobrato High School parents and students helped festival-goers get into the Mardi Gras spirit by selling plastic beaded necklaces and whimsical celebratory hats, many of the scores of food vendors held down the mushroom theme, serving up fried mushrooms, mushroom sandwiches, and mushroom quesadillas, just to name a few of the fungal offerings.
From near and far, this weekend was many patrons’ first time, for others it’s an annual chance to socialize.
Lavonne Occhipinti of San Diego was in town Saturday visiting her mother, who lives in San Jose. While she used to live in the area, Occhipinti said this was her first time. She was impressed with both the variety and quality of the arts booths.
And although Linda Hernandez has lived in Gilroy for decades, this is her first year. “It’s better than I expected,” she said. “There’s a lot of good artists, and a good variety of foods.”
Hernandez is considering coming back Sunday to purchase picture frames or stained glass works she admired at a couple of booths.
Dominic and Rachel Bejarano said their favorite part of the festival thus far is the train rides and swings, as their two kids enjoyed those rides. “We’re here for the little ones,” Rachel Bejarano said.
Alisha Hopkins, a 17-year-old ASHS student who grew up in Morgan Hill and recently moved to San Martin, came mainly to socialize.
“I like seeing people from elementary school, and people you haven’t seen in a long time,” said Hopkins, who has attended the festival every year since she was little.
More than 200 vendors offered a diverse array of goods, including handmade quilts, trendy clothing, jewelry, restored fiddles, vitamins, furnaces, and yard decorations. Large national corporations like Costco and strictly family-run operations like Wooden Boxes were represented.
Vendors of small items did very well this year, Minnich said, which she attributed to the gloomy economy.
One vendor did particularly well: dragonflies, butterflies, ladybugs and other whimsical colorful insects and birds with flapping wings as lawn decorations, sold for $1 each at the Waishing Co. booth on Depot, swarmed the festival.
The booth was hopping Sunday, with shoppers tearing through open boxes of still-wrapped decorations. Owner Connie Wong couldn’t assemble them fast enough.
They’d sold 1,000 Saturday, and were on track for selling as much Sunday, Wong said. She said the high sales – almost double that of last year – were attributed to the higher turnout this year, and because she had more styles.
Dan Sullivan, president of the MMG board of directors., said the CCC location has worked better than past locations in downtown Morgan Hill and at the Community Park, mainly because there is not as much automobile traffic.
However, some longtime attendees disagreed.
Eric Wiedemer of Morgan Hill preferred past MMG sites at the Community Park and downtown because they offered more space for the large crowds.
Morgan Hill Police patrolled the MMG throughout the weekend, and dispatch did not report any calls for service at the festival. Jasmine Nguyen of Saint Louise Regional Hospital said the hospital’s first-aid booth gave out “a lot of Band-aids,” but no one needed any significant help.
Reporter Natalie Everett contributed to this report.
