The Fungadelphia Festival
Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education
8480 Hagy's Mill Rd.
Phialdelphia
Aug. 22, 2026
I didn't always love mushrooms. The look and texture of them used to turn me off. But over the last several years, I've found that there's so much more beyond portobello and button mushrooms: I tried maitake mushrooms for the first time and fell in love; I've learned about the unique intelligence of slime molds and gained a general appreciation for their various shapes, colors and forms. When an ad for The Fungadelphia Festival came across my social media feed, it seemed like a cool opportunity to keep learning and maybe connect with some local foragers.
The festival promised guided mushroom walks, lectures, workshops, yoga and live music. I showed up by myself, with the expectation that I’d kind of meander a bit, scribbling notes and drawings about mycelium, hunched over a notebook, avoiding eye contact with anyone. I pulled into a spot at the front of the lot and waited for the shuttle at a shelter nearby. Immediately someone called over: “Hey did you come by yourself? Wanna be our friend?” There were three ladies laden in active wear with yoga mats and backpacks. I love being adopted by extroverts, Monica, Hannah and Jazmine would become my anchors for the day.
We got on the shuttle and headed over to the Schuykill Center for Environmental Education. Our first stop was to grab a snack at a tent with pizza and fruit for attendees and try to make a plan for the day. Unfortunately, both the guided walk and tincture workshop had reached maximum capacity, so we decided to spend time at a table with an ongoing natural dye drop-in session. The table was full, so we observed for a bit, watching people lay various bits of plant material on strips of cotton, then placing a small wooden mushroom in the middle before wrapping them up to be treated and dried.
Darting quickly around the table to educate its participants and onlookers about the process was Laura Hricko, a textile artist who “creates hands-on natural dye experiences that invite students to reconsider their relationship with textiles, the natural world, and consumption.” Turmeric, silver cosmos, logwood, hibiscus and more were laid out before us. Laura told us that the logwood produces a surprisingly dark blue-purple dye, despite it’s orange-ish hue. Surprisingly, none of the natural dyes (as far as I’m concerned) were made of mushrooms themselves. It would take about 30 minutes for the mushrooms to adopt the dye; after mummifying our shrooms, we went off to explore the rest of the day.
Jazmine, who was familiar with the Schuylkill Center, led us for a walk down a similar trail to that of the official hike. We came upon some spiral wooden structures built in between the tree where I found a small cluster of mushrooms, documenting them with the hopes of identifying their species later on. We ended the walk just in time for the last yoga session of the day. I hadn’t brought my mat and so borrowed a scarf from Hannah, trying my best to avoid the bits of deer poop speckled around.
After the yoga session, we saw that the fest was slowly coming to a close and rushed back to the natural dye station to see the results of our projects. I was impressed with the color deposits on my little mushroom. Apparently Laura will be using all of the cotton squares to create a community quilt or tapestry. I was thankful to bring home my rainbow mushroom as a lone souvenir by which to remember the day.
This was the third annual festival that the Philadelphia Mycology Club has held. Even without having been able to attend as many of the workshops as I would have liked, it was a great opportunity to meet people, spend some time outside and observe some fungi. I headed back home elated, heart full of joy and head full of mushrooms, possessing a new appreciation for our country, Fungadelphia.
There was a table set up to view penicillium, which is often used to make cheese!
