{"id":19516,"date":"2013-11-19T09:54:10","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T14:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=19516"},"modified":"2013-11-19T09:54:34","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T14:54:34","slug":"its-a-bird-its-a-plane-no-its-a-giant-mushroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=19516","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a bird, it\u2019s a plane: No, it\u2019s a giant mushroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

700-pound spore to descend on Kennett Square for New Year\u2019s Eve<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A sketch shows the mushroom that is being fabricated for Kennett Square\u2019s New Year\u2019s Eve celebration.<\/p><\/div>\n

Move over, Manhattan: Kennett Square is poised to supplant Times Square as the go-to destination for New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n

After all, who wants to watch a boring ball when the sky can be lit up with a fancifully festive fungus? That\u2019s right, a lighted, 700-pound, stainless steel mushroom measuring 8 feet by 7 \u00bd feet will descend 80 feet from a crane during the Mushroom Capital of the World\u2019s inaugural Midnight in the Square.<\/p>\n

After listening to a presentation from Kathi Lafferty, the maestro behind the Mushroom Festival, Kennett Square Borough Council unanimously approved the New Year\u2019s Eve special-event application at its meeting Monday night.<\/p>\n

Elaborating on the plans, Lafferty explained that the idea originated from State Rep. John Lawrence, and that its scope appropriately mushroomed as members of the community, including the Kennett Area Restaurant and Merchant Association (KARMA), got involved. For example, Bob\u2019s Cranes stepped up to provide the necessary equipment \u2013 \u201cWe lower; we don\u2019t drop,\u201d Lafferty said she was told \u2013 and Manfredi\u2019s Cold Storage will find a spot to store the giant spore, Lafferty said.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s hoping that Longwood Gardens, home of master illuminators, will assist with the lighting the iconic mushroom, which is being fashioned by M & P Custom Design Inc.\u00a0 Lafferty said she would be contacting local vendors to see who might be interested in selling food.\u00a0 She has already reached out to the Kennett Food Cupboard and will request that everyone who attends bring a non-perishable food item. The cupboard will have a truck on site to accept donations, Lafferty said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s fantastic,\u201d said Borough Councilman Geoffrey R. Bosley of the presentation as his colleagues nodded.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

700-pound spore to descend on Kennett Square for New Year\u2019s Eve By Kathleen Brady Shea,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times Move over, Manhattan: Kennett Square is poised to supplant Times Square as the go-to destination for New Year\u2019s Eve. After all, who wants to watch a boring ball when the sky can be lit up with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":19517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[4503,3126,4504,739,90,369,4505,4506,4507,4017],"class_list":["post-19516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-bobs-cranes","tag-kathi-lafferty","tag-kennett-area-restaurant-and-merchant-association-karma","tag-kennett-food-cupboard","tag-kennett-square","tag-longwood-gardens","tag-m-p-custom-design-inc","tag-manfredis-cold-storage","tag-midnight-in-the-square","tag-state-rep-john-lawrence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}