The 45th Annual Telluride Mushroom Festival - Part One of A Journey West

Good evening, friends,

I just got back from a week in the mountain west where I spent the majority of the time — Tuesday through Sunday — in Telluride, Colorado for the Telluride Mushroom Festival.

Telluride is the oldest and largest North American fungus festival. Founded by a handful of folks — including Manny & Joanne Salzmann, Gary Lincoff, Dr. Andrew Weil, and Paul Stamets — who wanted a space to earnestly and openly discuss psilocybin mushrooms after being discouraged to do so at the local herbal conferences. In the forty-five years since, the festival has maintained that psychedelic focus but also aptly incorporates the ecological, culinary, and artistic aspects of mycology as well.

Western Elf Saddle (Helvella vespertina). My favorite personal find of the weekend.

Upon arrival at Montrose Regional Airport in Montrose, CO, I quickly realized that I had left the dry northeast for the even drier mountain west. The last time I was in Telluride was 2022, a prolific year for mushrooms in the area, but this year the rains had not come and the mushrooms were few and far between. Fortunately, there were plenty of talks, workshops, and other programming at Telluride to keep us busy. Plus, I signed up to volunteer so I could attend for free (the $475 GA ticket is the steepest I’ve seen for a mushroom festival), and that occupied a handful of hours each day.

Red Tree Brain Fungus (Peniophora rufa) on aspen.

Help on the Way

My festival would not have been nearly as impactful if it weren’t for the kindness of strangers. I landed in Montrose around 11:15pm after taking the first flight out of Boston, at 5:25 AM. As is starting to become custom, I needed a ride.

The volunteer orientation was at noon, and about 90 minutes away from Montrose, so most volunteers that were driving would have already passed through town. Fortunately, I got out of the airport and pursued some “hot leads” (volunteers who said they were driving and running late in the volunteer WhatsApp group). That actually was very effective and within ten minutes I had not one, but two offers for rides.

Cai, a therapist from Denver, was filling up gas in Montrose and generously picked me up right at the airport. We talked for most of the ninety minute drive to Telluride and got to the orientation a fashionable two hours late — which actually turned out to be right on time (mushroom festival time). We found our groups, walked through the venues we’d be working at, and then attended the volunteer foray. The woods were parched so the foray kind of turned into folks just hanging around, getting to know each other.

Rose rust (Phragmidium sp.) on the fruit of a rose. The only notable find I brought back from the volunteer foray.

Cai and I were actually both camping at the same campground so we went there to set up our tents right after the foray. Upon arrival, we met Justin, coincidentally the other guy who offered me a ride if Cai couldn’t get me. A fourth, Jeff (a friend from the New York Mycological Society and a faithful MM reader), showed up in our area of the campground the next morning and the four of us became fast friends.

The only snafu that day came at the very end as I crawled into my tent. My normally rigid, inflatable sleeping pad limply contorted to the weight of my body. It had sprung a leak. Well, at least I only had to use it for the next six nights.

I inflated it again and was able to fall asleep. It would hold form for fifteen minutes or so before exhaling under my weight. Fortunately, Justin had packed a couple extra sleeping pads which he lent me, and I didn’t really have any trouble sleeping all week.

The other camping qualm was on Friday when we entered Stage 2 Fire Restrictions and could no longer have a camp fire. A bummer and an unfortunate testament to how dry it was.

A large puffball (Calvatia) growing behind some of the townhouses in Telluride.

Volunteering

I might have been put on this earth to work the registration/check-in table at mushroom festivals. I had a blast talking to people, learning where they were coming from, and chopping it up about mushrooms in general. Every corner of the continental US was represented, as well as Alaska and Hawaii, which is unlike any other festival I’ve attended. Not only did I get close with the other volunteers, but I would see people at other points in the festival and they’d say “oh, we met at registration”.

In addition to the free friends, I got a lot of free stuff, too. Extra promotional materials and even some of the leftover merch were all up for grabs. One woman, shoutout Audrey, even gave me a ticket to the wild foods dinner that she wasn’t going to be able to attend on Friday evening. The dinner, hosted by Katrina Blair, was a special add-on that featured wild foods harvested in the mountains and valleys around Telluride.

Sandy Stilt Puffball (Battarea phalloides). This was brought to the ID table, so I didn’t see it in the field, but definitely an impressive specimen.

Presentations

I unfortunately worked during a lot of the forays, but from the looks of the ID table (aside from the above) I wasn’t missing too much. I was, however, able to make it to the more popular presentations. Friday night’s keynotes were from Louis Schwartzberg, the director of the movie Fantastic Fungi, and Paul Stamets, probably the most well-known mushroomer in the world.

Louis was introduced and I was surprised when the man in the seat next to me got up and went to the podium. The surprise kind of wore off when the first thing he said was he was getting over a cold. That is one of the perks of the festival, you can literally rub elbows and have normal, human interactions with the superstars of the mushroom world (I also got to talk to Stamets one on one outside of a thrift store and gave him my card… Paul, if you’re reading this, just a reminder that the premium subscribers get a sick t-shirt).

This is an ant trapped in resin — on its way to becoming amber and starting another Jurassic Park. This is the coolest thing I saw all week and needed to throw it in somewhere.

The evening was an exercise in attention span with nearly four hours of talking: preamble from the festival organizers, then ninety minutes each from Schwartzberg and Stamets. Schwartzberg showed some of his new projects — he’s seemed to lean into the use of AI graphics which had some members of the audience less than stoked. Stamets followed.

Paul Stamets talking about psilocybin mushrooms in Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Stamets is a polarizing figure in the mushroom world. Some think he’s a snake oil salesman because he uses myceliated grains in his Fungi Perfecti products (cheaper than using the actual mushroom fruiting body), but he’ll tell you that through his self-funded scientific research, he found the mycelium has more robust medicinal compounds than the actual mushroom. I’m not totally sure where I stand on that, but I’ve always operated under the education that products made with the fruiting body (the actual mushroom) are more dense in beta-glucans, polysaccharides, and the other compounds you’re looking for in your mushroom supplement. One thing that isn’t in doubt, though: if you give Stamets a microphone, he is a captivating speaker and storyteller.

The overall message of his presentation was to promote random acts of kindness, something that’s hard to argue against — and something I got experience and practice this whole trip in sharing food, rides, and vibes. He also detailed different ethnomycological artifacts he’s seen throughout the world — from psilocybin mushrooms depicted in Egyptian hieroglyphs to mushrooms displayed on a 15th century cross from Mexico.

Stamets concluded by presenting the results of several recent clinical trials on psilocybin. He shared studies that demonstrated mushrooms can potentially treat everything from Opioid Use Disorder to Parkinson’s disease. Folks had mixed feelings, but I left there pretty fired up. Both speakers that night received standing ovations from the packed, 700 person auditorium.

The other memorable presentation I was able to attend was William Padilla Brown’s talk on truffles. I learned that there are actually a handful of farms cultivating truffles on the east coast (Burwell Farms and Appalachian Truffle to name a couple), and I’m now inspired to do a Mushroom Monday on-assignment at one of these farms.

Folks from the Pikes Peak Mycological Society went all out to imitate the emerald elf cups (Chlorociboria aeruginascens).

The Parade

The culmination of the festival is the parade on Saturday afternoon. People spend all year crafting and designing their costumes, and then some of us spend an hour trying to make red pants for their part as Tweedle Dum in an Alice in Wonderland group ensemble. Two of the Colorado Clubs, Pike’s Peak Mycological Society and the Western Colorado Mushroom club, are very competitive about taking home “best in show”.

This year, Western Colorado got to wear the crown as Hamilton Pevec won with his full-body Pholiota costume. This soured the folks at the Pike’s Peak club as their group costume of Chlorocibora aeruginascens came in second, taking home “best ascomycete”.

As if he were the heel in a WWE script, Hamilton brashly bragged about winning and rubbed it in the faces of the Pike’s Peak club. Typically not the vibe at the mushroom festival, but I did find the idea of going to a mushroom festival and making enemies amusing. Don’t tell these folks it’s just a parade.

Best in show being escorted through the crowd.

The other note about having the festival in Telluride is that you can really get after it if you want to — whether that’s hitting the bars after the keynotes to catch some live music or heading down to the Sheridan Opera House for the Mycolicious Mycoluscious Mycological Poetry Show. I would go back to camp each night and either cook or hang around the fire, but I was impressed with the energy of the late night folks. I did indulge, multiple times, in the free town gondola that takes you to the top of the ridge.

View from the top of the gondola. Not a bad backdrop for a mushroom festival, or for life in general.

Justin and I wrapped up a final volunteering shift Sunday morning and then he was kind enough to drive me back down to Montrose where I picked up a car and headed west. That part of the journey deserves its own chapter. Stay tuned…

A big thank you to everyone who made the festival what it was, particularly to Cai and Justin for hauling me around everywhere. I’ll see you all back there soon.

We’re finally getting some rain out east, hopefully the Western Rockies are next,

Aubrey

Play the hits. Ant in resin one more time.