Welcome back to this week’s edition of Tripper Advisor, and hello from beautiful and bucolic Telluride, Colorado. The 45th annual Telluride Mushroom Festival just wrapped yesterday and it continues to stand as a beacon of untamed beauty and fierce independence as the longest running and biggest mushroom festival in the United States. 

‘TMF’ attracted several thousand people to this ritzy hamlet in the San Juan Mountains for a week of wild mushroom forays, home mushroom cultivation workshops, expert keynotes from the likes of Paul Stamets, Dennis McKenna and William Padilla-Brown, haute cuisine pop up dinners and the famous costume parade that takes over the town’s main street every year to cap off the event.

It’s hard to gauge the exact estimate of attendees because the fest gets a lot of overflow from tourists and town residents alike who come to take advantage of the programming that’s free and open to the public.

Examples of this free programming include a mushroom identification table with experts on hand to provide morphological analysis and edibility reports, dozens of tents with different product samples and interactive displays, and the famous mushroom costume parade down the main street in town to cap off the event. 

I didn’t have any plans to come to Telluride Mushroom Festival this year until a last minute invitation from festival sponsors and beloved mushroom substrate kingpins Poo God arranged for my transport, lodging and participation literally 48 hours before kick-off.

Poo God has been a sponsor of TMF for several years running, and they made a huge impression on festival goers as the only tent to have numerous fresh psilocybe cubensis mushrooms on hand in a series of monotubs alongside their substrate. Customers and attendees were encouraged to pick their own mushroom and enjoy the festivities, and it truly seems as if the entire town took them up on this offer. 

The talks and workshops at Telluride Mushroom Festival can be mind-bogglingly difficult to choose between; so many elders and newcomers with fresh perspectives all end up scheduled at the same time.

Do I go see Dennis McKenna talk about the Stoned Ape Theory or do I go to the wild mushroom dinner pairing? Do I see Giuliana Furci talking about mushroom conservation and environmental policy activism with the United Nations or do I go see KK from Flora Funga podcast peeling back the curtain on the mysterious world of Lichens? The entire week is full of these types of decisions. 

Fortunately, there is really no way you can go wrong at TMF. The real magic happens simply by being in close proximity to so many jubilant, intelligent humans who have all congregated in a spectacular setting to celebrate mushrooms. 

One of the many upsides to the Telluride community is the opportunity to ride the Gondolas that connect the downtown area with the various resort communities and condo rentals in the area. I like to call them ‘Gonzo-las’ to pay homage to the first class psychonautry that these suspended orbs play host to.

I commuted via Gondola from our incredible condo to the festival today with acouple of montubs full of cubensis, feeling like a reverse version of the Grinch as I descended from the remote mountaintop resort community down into the town of Telluride bearing fungi gifts to make the townspeople smile ear to ear. 

My programming highlights of the week were Giuliana Furci of Fungi Foundation 

sharing her experience on the ongoing global diplomacy initiatives to archive traditional indigenous fungi knowledge and how to use mycologically and indigenously inclusive language in international environmental policy frameworks with the United Nations.

Giuliana has been a champion of the fungi for decades and founded the world’s first NGO dedicated to fungi in 2012 in her native Chile. She embodies a lot of the spirit of what makes Telluride Mushroom Festival so special; unassuming, collaborative, deeply passionate and always ready with a hug and a smile. The entire festival atmosphere is a reflection of Giuliana and kindred spirits. 

Mushroom celebrity Paul Stamets provided an excellent keynote on Psilocybin mushrooms of the world complete with an analysis of various motifs and artistic depictions of mushrooms from indigenous cultures around the world. I learned that he’s actually one of the founders of the festival, and his participation continues to attract lines around the block and to win over hearts around the world.

Festival favorite William Padilla-Brown of Mycosymbiotics also lit up the festival with his talk about truffles around the world. I learned that these subterranean mycelial treats grow all over the planet and across North America, but the extent of the truffle biodiversity in many places is completely unknown since we haven’t been looking for them. Truffles may have been introduced to the Romans by the cultures of North Africa, who have been foraging for the Terfeziaceae ‘Desert Truffle’ for millenia. 

Some truffles harbor over 100 different volatile aromatics, meaning that their scents and flavors are intensely wild and difficult to describe or properly appreciate unless you have them in front of you. Fortunately Will brought a couple of samples of some rare truffles; their olfactory profile ranged from gasoline to nuttiness to old McDonald’s french fries. Don’t knock ‘em til you’ve tried them!

The mushroom costume parade is always a highlight; hundreds of people take over the main street of town and follow the lead of parade Grand Marshall Art Goodtimes at the wheel of his famous Amanita muscaria mushroom beetle.

A sensory explosion of colors, sights, sounds, bubbles, music, and fifth dimensional interlopers take over Telluride in a joyous celebration, culminating in an unhinged drum circle at the park on the edge of town. 

The Telluride Mushroom Festival is a singular event in the world of mushroom festivities. It continues to draw mycophiles and the mushroom curious from all across the world and to turn strangers into family.

The legacy of this festival has left an indelible mark on countless people, and one truly feels that they can join the magic and ‘grow old together’ with the rest of the festival revelers. As the world continues to grow into an unpredictable, messy and wildly confusing place – the TMF continues to offer a little slice of magic in the wild fungi filled mountains.