Fungus Fair 2024 - General Information
The 2024, 50th Anniversity Fungus Fair set all time attendance records for the event. For 2025 we will be making some improvements to reduce crowding and ensure that everyone has a great experience.
The Santa Cruz Fungus Fair is coming back to the London Nelson Community Center!
The Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz (FFSC) is again partnering with the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History to bring back the fair for its 50th anniversary. Be sure to check back on this website for updates as we finalize our schedule of events for what is sure to be an epic fair.
Come to Santa Cruz and explore the fascinating world of Fungi. Learn interesting and fun facts about the hundreds of beautiful and fascinating species of mushrooms found in the Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay Area. Fungi will be beautifully displayed in a re-created woodland habitat. This unique Santa Cruz tradition features three days of fantastic fun, informative speakers and demonstrations, with fungal activities for the whole family.
The Fungus Fair is held each year in January in Santa Cruz at the London Nelson Community Center.
This three day event features hundreds of species of local fungi presented in a unique fashion, and draws thousands of visitors each year. The Fair showcases speakers, a special Kids' Room, and a taxonomy panel for identification of fungi you find. Many books and mushroom-related items are available for sale, as are wild mushroom delicacies.
Did you know that without fungus, we’d have no bread, cheese, beer, or wine? Or that anti-cholesterol medicine was developed from mushrooms? Come to the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair to learn all there is to know about the fascinating world of mushrooms.
This unique Santa Cruz tradition features fantastic fungus fun for the whole family. Bring the kids and stroll through a re-created woodland forest displaying hundreds of wild mushrooms; the Fungus Fair also features a special room full of hands-on activities for the kids, including fungus exploration tables, clay mushroom building, face painting, and more!
View the 2023 Fungus Fair
View the 2022 Fungus Fair
View the 2020 Fungus Fair
View the 2019 Fungus Fair
View the 2018 Fungus Fair
View the 2017 Fungus Fair
WHEN
Friday Afternoon, Jan 12: 2:00-5:00 pm
After-hours dinner event 5:30-9:30 pm
Saturday, January 13: 10:00 am-5:00 pm
Sunday, January 14: 10:00 am-5:00 pm
LOCATION
London Nelson Community Center
301 Center Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
ADMISSION
Friday admission - $10
Saturday / Sunday admission - $15
Students & Seniors (60+) - $10
Main Room Speakers (room 3) - $5 add on
Kids under 12 - free
ACTIVITIES
FFSC mushroom experts will be available throughout the fair to identify the mushrooms you’ve found. Bring yours, ideally stored in a paper bag rather than plastic. Paper allows fungi to "breathe" and keeps them fresher!
Nationally and locally renowned speakers will present talks on a wide variety of topics in the Main Lecture Room (Room 3) and the Mushrooms 101 Room (Room 1). See Program Schedule for details.
The habitat display area will present hundreds of mushroom species commonly found in the Santa Cruz/San Francisco/Monterey Bay area.
Visit the Kid's Room for mushroom activities such as clay sculpture, water colors, face painting, mushroom art and making mushroom dyed fabric. Peruse the fungus exploration area and look at spores through a microscope. Note to parents: the Kid's Room is only open on Saturday and Sunday.
Throughout the three day event, Fungus Fair attendees will be able to learn more about local mushrooms, view remarkable mushroom arts and crafts, taste unusual and exceptionally good fungal fare, and be a part of the FFSC’s overriding mission – “We Keep the Fun in Fungi!”
The FFSC actively promotes the study of mushrooms, and is dedicated to encouraging an avid interest in the fungal kingdom. We hunt mushrooms for scientific interest and for the table. We encourage a sense of wonder with regard to one of the least understood segments of our global environment. We are fungiphiles, and you just might be one, too...
This year's fair is a collaborative effort between the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, with support of our sponsors, the Peninsula Open Space Trust and Hilltromper Santa Cruz
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SANTA CRUZ MUSEUM of Natural History