{"id":36499,"date":"2017-09-07T10:30:47","date_gmt":"2017-09-07T14:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=36499"},"modified":"2017-09-07T09:52:42","modified_gmt":"2017-09-07T13:52:42","slug":"mushroom-festival-bigger-and-better-than-ever-for-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=36499","title":{"rendered":"Mushroom Festival: bigger and better than ever for 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Anne Uhle<\/strong>, Correspondent, The Times<\/em><\/p>\n

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With near perfect weather forecast for this weekend, the streets of Kennett Square should be packed for the 32nd annual Mushroom Festival.<\/p><\/div>\n

KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 The 32nd<\/sup> Annual Mushroom Festival is bigger and better than ever, taking over the downtown area this weekend.<\/p>\n

The whole celebration will kick off with a parade around the square at 6 p.m. Friday night followed by Dancing in the Streets with good foot at 9:30 p.m. An old-fashioned carnival will also be open Friday night from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at 600 S Broad Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo kick off the parade there are 82 entries which is huge, it\u2019s close to the most if not the most we\u2019ve ever had.\u201d said Kathi Lafferty, the festival’s coordinator.<\/p>\n

The fair opens Saturday\u00a0at 10 a.m with nearly 250 vendors, both local and from around the country selling food, drinks, art, and more from Willow Street to Garfield Street.<\/p>\n

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Fun-GUS, the official mascot of the Mushroom Festival, is raring and ready to go for this year’s event.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re adding tables and chairs closer to some of the food vendors so that people can sit down and eat.\u201d Says Lafferty.<\/p>\n

Saturday-only events include the Antique Classic Car Show, the Fried Mushroom Eating Championship, and the 10,000 Maniacs concert.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the 10,000 Maniacs concert on Saturday night that The Flash is hosting, that tent seats 800 people and tickets are already sold out.\u201d Says Lafferty of the concert.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s guest chefs who will be sharing tips and recipes in the culinary tent include chefs from this years James Beard Foundation Blended Burger Project at 1 p.m. and Ray Maxwell, owner and master chef of the Brown Derby at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the culinary event we\u2019re having the James Beard Foundation Blended Burger Project. They\u2019ll be giving 200 samples out.\u201d Says Lafferty advising visitors to come out early to sample the burgers.<\/p>\n

Sunday only events will be the Mushroom Run and Fun Gus Walk, the Mushroom Judging, and the Soup and Wine Event.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s guest chefs at the Culinary Tent will be Elizabeth Davis Cerami of Y\u2019or so Sweet at 10:30 a.m., Barry Crumlich Executive Chef to the Governor of Pennsylvania at noon, Jim Del Vescovo of Aurora Pizza Kitchen at 2 p.m., and Jim Berman of Grain Craft Bar and Kitchen at 3:15 p.m.<\/p>\n

Throughout the weekend, visitors can get a special, behind the scenes look at a mushroom\u2019s journey from spore to on their plates at the Mushroom Growers\u2019 Exhibit. The Masonic Lodge offers visitors a traditional mushroom soup made with a mushroom grower\u2019s family recipe.<\/p>\n

Painted Mushrooms will be displayed at State and Broad Streets and visitors can even participate in a silent auction to take one home with them. Visitors can also use their pocket change to vote for their favorite photo in the Cute-As-A-Button (Mushroom) Baby Photo contest, proceeds from the contest benefit A.I DuPont Children\u2019s Hospital. Live music will be played on South Union and Cypress streets throughout the duration of the festival. In addition to the Carnival on South Broad Street, there will also be Children\u2019s Rides located between Lafayette Street and Meredith Street. The children\u2019s entertainment stage has also moved to Lafayette Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe changed our children\u2019s entertainment venue and our music venue. The music venue is moving to South Broad Street and the children\u2019s entertainment venue will be on Lafayette, closer to the children\u2019s rides.\u201d Says Lafferty.<\/p>\n

Overall, Lafferty says she\u2019s most excited for the weather. \u201cIt\u2019s supposed to be beautiful. I just want everyone to come and have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

By Anne Uhle, Correspondent, The Times KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 The 32nd Annual Mushroom Festival is bigger and better than ever, taking over the downtown area this weekend. The whole celebration will kick off with a parade around the square at 6 p.m. Friday night followed by Dancing in the Streets with good foot at 9:30 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7426,90,192],"class_list":["post-36499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-featured","tag-kennett-square","tag-mushroom-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36499","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36500,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36499\/revisions\/36500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}