28 Nov Telluride Mushroom Fest: Fund Fungi for Our Future!
Telluride Colorado is normally the epicenter of the largest wild mushroom happening in North America. Then 2020 happened and most things “normal” have been put on hold. Undaunted, the organizers of the Telluride Mushroom Festival held the 40th annual Festival—though in a mostly virtual format—with a few tightly restricted “in-person” events for the stalwarts who would not miss it for the world (or pandemic).
The 40th Annual (Virtual) Telluride Mushroom Festival is now available until August 10, 2021. The event includes 55 videos and over 60 hours of lectures, workshops and forays from all of your favorite Fungal Fanatics & Mycologists. Buy virtual Festival playlist access now. Make a donation. Every donation over $50 receives access to the 2020 Virtual Festival content.
The following fleshes out an appeal for support from Mushroom Festival director Britt Bunyard, who offers cogent reasons why the nonprofit needs and deserves our help.
Britt Bunyard, director, Telluride Mushroom Fest.
This year, 2020, sure did throw us all a curveball. The celebration planned for this past August was meant to be our biggest yet. Forty years of celebrating all things fungi!
However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our beloved festival and community gathering was forced to cancel or go virtual.
Instead of our big 4-0 gathering taking place in Telluride, Mushroom Festival presented was largely virtual with a few limited in-person outdoor donor events. Over 60 hours of mycology lectures, workshops, cooking demos, community chats, forays and even our longstanding poetry show, all took the stage virtually on our Mighty Network group and on the TMF YouTube channel. This content is still available for purchase ($74.99) until 8/2021.
With the help of our mothership nonprofit organization, the Telluride Institute and a mountain of donations from our faculty and pass holders, TMF was provided every resource possible to make the weekend happen. Even with this out-pouring of mushroom love, however, the long-standing event still suffered a loss in revenue.
Now, we are kindly asking you to help fund fungi for our future!
Together, with our Staff, Board, and Mushroom Committee, let’s all take a stand to preserve all we have created over these last forty years and cultivate our future for the next forty years, and make our BIG come back in 2021, because, WE LOVE MUSHROOMS!
PLEASE CONSIDER A DONATION
Help us ensure these incredible offerings don’t go away in 2021!
Please support the festival programs/studies listed below:
1. Mycoremediation & Mycorrhizal Fungi Field Studies: Support the planning and implementation of test sites, fungal studies and programs related to Telluride’s Valley Floor Fungi Field Studies for the next three years. These studies aim to monitor and report findings of the watershed impacts of contaminated soil. Additionally, educational workshops will be presented throughout the year(s) to youth, and during the annual Mushroom Festival from 2021 through 2023. Our university partners will translate a curriculum around the topics of mycor-emediation and mycorrhizae. This test site project and educational program will require approx. $5,000/year for three years ($15,000 total).
2. Free Community Mushroom Educational Programming for the 2021 Festival in Telluride: Every year, TMF offers a handful of FREE programs to non-pass holders curious about mushrooms. Mushroom Basics Lectures, Mushroom Identification, Cooking Demos and even a few FREE Forays will be offered at the 2021 festival with your support! These programs have been offered for years and are integral to introducing more people to the world of mycology. We don’t want these programs to go away in 2021 due to financial hardships experienced in 2020. Help us get even MORE people excited about mushrooms! These community programs cost TMF about $18,000 annually to produce and are offered at no charge.
After a challenging financial year in 2020, we don’t want these incredible offerings go away.
Help us come back strong in 2021.
FUND FUNGI for our FUTURE!
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