Once a year, the Colorado Mushroom Festival attracts mushroom enthusiasts from all over the world, who come together to spend wonderful days: living in the wild, learning and sharing knowledge about mushrooms, and making friends with like-minded people. Follow photographer Theo Stroomer as he explores a day at this year's festival to see what's so interesting about this gathering of mushroom lovers.
Mushroom Festival
First organized in 1891,Telluride Mushroom FestivalWith themes revolving around everything related to mushrooms – from the latest advancements in mycology to dinners featuring famous local wild foods – the Mushroom Festival, held annually for 130 years, is a renowned event with a colorful history, taking place in one of the most beautiful locations in the world – the southwestern Colorado town of Telluride.
A mushroom hunt at the Telluride Mushroom Festival on August 21st.
There are people like Katrina Blair, a wildlife food expert, who walked nearly 113 km over a week, from Durango to Telluride, to attend the Mushroom Festival.
This year, the festival was held over five days, from August 18th to 22nd. Throughout those last days of August, mushrooms and mushroom enthusiasts could be seen everywhere across Colorado. Many visitors from as far away as Canada, Chile, and Hawaii also attended and participated in the festival's activities: lectures on mushrooms, mushroom identification workshops, opportunities to make friends, delicious food, and mushroom hunting trips.
Two mushroom hunters, Liz Bik and Julian Paik (center), pose for a photo during their mushroom-hunting trip on August 20th. Cassandra Owen (right) goes mushroom hunting on August 21st.
Mary Beath is brushing a mushroom she found while mushroom hunting at the festival.
Shrimp Russula mushrooms and Armillaria mushrooms (honey mushrooms) are found at the festival.
The mushrooms we caught were scattered on a cloth.
One morning after the rain (the ideal time for mushrooms), I joined a walk with other mushroom enthusiasts. We relaxed and enjoyed nature on a meadow on the mountainside, searching for mushrooms in the forest and collecting them to distinguish each type. The mountain was full of mushrooms; in just a few hours, we found dozens of different varieties.
A pine mushroom is being enjoyed outdoors.
Jewelry made from mushrooms is sold at the festival.
Festival attendees are viewing mushrooms inside a tent.
Roger Levine and a Calvatia boonia mushroom on the display table.
That weekend there was a parade through downtown Telluride, filled with mushroom-inspired costumes. The parade participants had been preparing for weeks, even months. "My costume is Pholiota squarrosa," Debbie Klein told me in our dorm room. She had attached Hershey's Kisses candies to her hat to resemble the spiky mushrooms.
Left: A creative headpiece made from mushroom imagery. | Right: Debbie Klein dressed as a pholiota squarrosa mushroom, wearing a headpiece adorned with Hershey's Kisses candies.
The Mushroom Festival parade goes through the main street of Telluride town.
That Saturday afternoon, Phoenix Fuller Thelonius True Heart Skookum River Blythe Ford showcased a nearly 1.8-meter-tall costume with a mushroom-shaped hat dotted with ink in the parade. Five friends, wrapped in plastic, leaned against each other to form a soft, mushroom-shaped pouch. The paraders sang and danced, also displaying a multitude of mushroom characteristics.
People holding signs in the Telluride Mushroom Festival parade. And in the middle is Phoenix Fuller Thelonius True Heart Skookum River Blythe Ford in a costume with a pitch-black mushroom hat.
A mushroom-shaped vehicle and five people dressed as a package of enoki mushrooms.
When the parade ended, I asked a man in mismatched, brightly colored socks what his plans were for the evening.
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