54th Fungus Fair

When the first rains tease up the chanterelles and porcini, fungus lovers head to the Fungus Fair: A Celebration of Wild Mushrooms.

The MSSF 54th Fungus Fair will display fungi collected in various locations in California. Annual collections have been made by MSSF since 1972. This historical information is a potentially important contribution to science as climate change affects our local ecosystems.

The fair offers creative and hands-on mushroom activities for people of all ages. Dyes, Clay, Sun prints, Koji, mushroom tinctures, wood block carving, zine making, and other art and crafts. Naturalistic displays of more than 300 species of locally collected fungi. Identification table - bring your specimens to find out the species!

Educational tables on varied subjects such as medicinal mushrooms, myco-remediation, cultivation, ecology, psychedelic fungi, dyes from fungi, toxicology, edible mushrooms, microscopes and spore prints and vendors with fun mushroom products. Come watch the mushrooms collected from across the state and mingle with other mushroom-loving people and stock up on mushroom gifts and goodies.

Things to do at the fair...

• Lectures and Workshops - the 2026 line-up below!
• 2026 Lectures
• 10:30am - 12:00pm - Speaker: Thea Chesney - Topic: Mysteries, Oddities, and Rarities: Highlights from FUNDIS Challenges and Projects
• 12:15pm - 1:45pm - Speaker: Cat Adams - Topic: Death Will Surely Follow: The Poisonous Chemistry That Makes Mushrooms Fascinating
• 2:00pm - 3:30pm - Speaker: Alan Rockefeller - Topic: The Mycology of Central and South America
• 3:45pm - 5:00pm - Speaker: Daniel Winkler - Topic: "Fungal Fruits of the Forest" - Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms of the California North Coast
• 2026 Workshops
• 10:30am - noon - Jack Laws - Mushroom Drawing 101
• 12:30pm - 2:00pm - JR Blair - Mushroom ID
• 11:00am - 1:00pm - Alan Rockefeller - Microscopy Workshop
• 1:30pm - 3:00pm - Mel Gillman - Zine Workshop (free)
• 1:30pm - 4:30pm - Olga Tsongas - Simple Medicinal Mushroom Preparations
• 2:30pm - 4:30pm - Eleana Hsu - Fermenting Koji
• 2026 Free in Craftzone
• 11:00am - 1:00pm - Clay with Liz Vermillion
• 12:00pm - 1:00 PM - Mushroom Cyanotypes with Karen Rusiniak (Sunprints)
• 1:00pm - 3:00pm - Mushroom Mini Canvases on Easels with Holly Bazeley
• 2:00pm - 4:00pm - Felted Mushroom Sculptures with David Gardella
• 2:00pm - 3:30pm - Dye workshop with Liz Vermillion
• Mushroom block printing with Gabrial Medvetska ($2 donation)
• [Workshops require a separate add-on ticket, in addition to your general admission ticket.]
• Creative and hands-on mushroom activities for people of all ages - Make mushroom-themed cards, ornaments, rain sticks, collages, hats, clay and felted sculptures, sun-prints and more… Unleash your inner mushroom fanatic at the Craft Zone!
• Naturalistic displays of more than 300 species of locally collected fungi
• Identification table - bring your specimens to find out the species!
• Educational tables on varied subjects such as lichens, medicinal mushrooms, myco-remediation, cultivation, ecology, psychedelic fungi, dyes from fungi, toxicology, edible mushrooms, and more...
• Microscopes and spore prints
• Vendors with fun mushroom products
• Mingle and meet other mushroom loving people
• Come and try a bowl of delicious mushroom soup
• Book signing by the authors