Telluride Mushroom Festival

Telluride, CO

Website: http://www.shroomfest.com/

Welcome to the annual Telluride Mushroom Festival: August 16 - 19 in southwestern Colorado, sponsored by the Telluride Institute.

Shroomfest explores all aspects of the fungal world, from gourmet wild edibles to medicinal 'shrooms, from toxins to entheogens. Past speakers have included Dr. Andrew Weil, Paul Stamets, Terence McKenna, Kathleen Harrison, Jonathan Ott, Wade Davis, Mazatec elder Julieta Casimiro, Thomas Szasz, David Arora, Joan Halifax, Federal Judge John Kane, Sheriff Bill Masters, Ethan Nadelmann, Sasha and Ann Shulgin, Doug Peacock, Ralph Abraham, Dolores LaChapelle, Christian Ratsch, Kary Mullis, Laura Huxley, Taylor Lockwood, Rick Doblin, Lynn Margulis, Ralph Metzner and more.

Current resident faculty includes Gary Lincoff, Dr. Emanuel Salzman, Bill Adams, Linnea Gillman, Daniel Winkler, David Rose, John Winslow, Kat Harrison, Amelia Free, Lindamarie Luna, Katrina Blair, Hiroki Ide, Miguel Logghe, Jo Norris, Naomi & Ahtem Salzman, Britt Bunyard, Rick Hollinbeck, Jaime Cobb, Sky & Mesa Hollinbeck, Kris Holstrom, Larry Evans, Sarah Pletts, Ruby Siegel and others.

The four-day event consists of slide presentations, lectures, forays, performances (dance, poetry, music), discussion groups, panels, a hands-on growing workshop, parade, movies, free identification fair, cook&taste, and numerous local restaurants offering gourmet wild mushroom specials.

The San Juan Mountains surrounding Telluride are famous for their bounty of fungal species, with edible chanterelles and boletes often fruiting in profusion during the good years, thanks to summer monsoon rains.