Just after 2:30 p.m. Saturday the rain plopped onto the
thousands who came to eat, drink, buy beads, listen to live music
and celebrate the oncoming of summer, but for most visiting the
first day of the 32nd annual Mushroom Mardi Gras festival, the few
flurries weren’t going to dampen the fun.
Just after 2:30 p.m. Saturday the rain plopped onto the thousands who came to eat, drink, buy beads, listen to live music and celebrate the oncoming of summer, but for most visiting the first day of the 32nd annual Mushroom Mardi Gras festival, the few flurries weren’t going to dampen the fun.
As soon as the sky opened up – a surprising change of weather to most clad in tank-tops and extra sunscreen – just two umbrellas popped open near the mid-rows on the grass lawn at the Community and Cultural Center amphitheater.
“We brought these on accident,” Renade Aliganga said, sitting with her husband Robert, who was also successfully guarding himself from the rain. “We brought them for the sun,” she laughed. “It’s a wonderful day, we don’t mind it.”
The annual free festival of arts, crafts, entertainment and food – a much calmer version of Bourbon Street’s carnival – went off without a hitch with an estimated 70,000 people visiting during the Memorial Day weekend.
“It was a huge success. We had record-breaking crowds, great family entertainment and no problems at all,” said Sunday Minnich, the executive director of Mushroom Mardi Gras.
“We had no issues with the rain. Somebody above was looking out for us,” Minnich said. Food and drink sales were better than last year, also, Minnich said. The Mardi Gras organizers have long “hired” local community groups, nonprofits and school teams or clubs who use the weekend as a way to fundraise by manning booths or helping to run other aspects of the festival.
Morgan Hill’s “flower” made a resurgence this year with doubly more fungus food offerings, a huge inflatable mushroom for photo ops and even mushroom education complete with growing models of the life cycle of Santa Clara County’s agriculture darling.
“It’s been very crowded, but very good,” said Shelly Cotta, who works in sales at Monterey Mushrooms in Morgan Hill. “A lot of people are in asking questions. We’ve done this education piece before but it’s never been this big.”
Near Cotta’s booth in the Community and Cultural Center parking lot on Dunne Avenue and Monterey Road, Meghan and Joe Black of Hollister gazed at the map that marked at least six different mushroom growers in South County. The Blacks were fresh from another produce jamboree at the Artichoke Festival in Castroville the weekend before.
“It was not as impressive as this,” Meghan said. Often, visitors to Mardi Gras commented this weekend how well-organized the festival is.
The couple debated whether they might purchase mushrooms at Mardi Gras to take home. “Well, don’t say no to buying them quite yet,” Meghan said to Joe.
The funky smell compressed into the few blocks of Mardi Gras may have convinced Joe to get a little taste of Morgan Hill, besides his beer.
“OK, maybe we will get a couple caps,” he said. “We do have a backpack,” Meghan quipped.
The rows and rows of vendors – from churches passing out information on services, to chiropractors offering free spinal tests, to a catchall of hats, bags, scarves, lawn ornaments, jewelry, toy guns and Mardi Grad beads for sale – it was shopping that was all the rage Saturday.
Misty Easter of Concord and Timothy Reynolds of Antioch are festival fanatics. Standing by the portable toilets at about 1 p.m. Saturday, the friends declared the great time they were having at Morgan Hill’s Memorial Weekend go-to activity.
“It’s a long weekend, so we said, let’s get in the car and go,” Easter said.
“It’s so nice. The food, the smells, the sites. And the vendors. Oooh, I love the vendors. I came for the vendors,” Reynolds said holding up his shopping bag. He said they go online and research where the next festival is, pack up their hats for the sun and go. And they weren’t exaggerating their love for festivals, they’ve gone to Concord, Clayton, Oakland and Fremont for their version of a street fair. Mushroom Mardi Gras was a first for Easter. “This is really, really good. Good people, too. And it’s clean!”
Reynolds jumped in and said he wanted to give a “shout-out” to the company that provided the Porta-Pottys; “they are the cleanest I’ve seen at all the festivals I’ve been to.”
“This festival definitely deserves two thumbs up,” Reynolds said.
Three teen-agers completed their shopping goal of the weekend by noon Saturday.
“We came for toe rings,” Sobrato freshman Kayla Birrell said, looking down at her polished toes in flip-flops. Her friends, Victoria Menchaca of Yosemite and Cody Hill of Morgan Hill, perused more jewelry at a booth, though Menchaca committed a toe ring faux pas and wore Converse shoes that day.
“Then we’re going to walk around and shop some more,” Birrell said.
One of the highlights at Mushroom Mardi Gras is the public recognition of Morgan Hill’s brightest high school students. This year, the Mushroom Mardi Gras board awarded $40,000 in scholarships.
Tim Acker, a senior at Live Oak, clad in his Boy Scouts uniform received a $1,000 check for his dedication to the community. On Saturday, he did something he isn’t known for at one of the town’s free downtown events: he wasn’t picking up trash for Troop 730.
For seven years Acker has been picking up trash with his troop to earn money for Scout trips and projects at the Mardi Gras, Taste of Morgan Hill, the Gilroy Garlic Festival and now the No Bull BBQ.
“The vendors are all really nice. They give us smoothies or food sometimes. It’s good just to walk around here today” Acker said. He’s on his way to the distinction of Eagle Scout and starting college in the fall at Columbia Community College in Sonora.
“They’re the trashy troop,” laughed Tim’s mom Nancy Acker, of San Martin. Sure enough, Acker was back Sunday to pick up trash.
READ MORE: Illegal, tiny turtles seized at Mushroom Mardi Gras
