Mushroom Festival introduction story

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Photos by Chris Barber

Gina Puoci, left, and Gale Ferranto are taking the Mushroom Festival back uptown for 2022.

By Chris Barber Contributing Writer

The 37th annual Mushroom Festival will be back home on State Street this year, much to the delight of its longtime fans.

It was away from its traditional site in the heart of Kennett Square for two years: In 2020, there was no festival at all due to COVID-19 precautions, and in 2021, when restrictions were loosened, there was a reduced version of the event at the former Genesis site on South Broad Street. The 2021 move was necessary because a detour around the Baltimore Pike bridge repair would have been awkward and difficult.

This year’s Mushroom Festival will run two days on Saturday, Sept. 10, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 11, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and many of the features that visitors are familiar with are returning.

Gina Puoci and Gale Ferranto are guiding the festival back uptown following the retirement of longtime volunteer chairperson Kathi Lafferty.

Puoci, the festival board president, and Ferranto, the festival coordinator, are optimistic about the event’s move back to the middle of town and the return to what has over the years become one of Southeastern Pennsylvania’s most popular seasonal attractions. In recent years, the attendance over two days has been estimated at 100,000.

Upon its uptown return, the festival will showcase vendors, food, entertainment, souvenirs, music, a Cute-As-A-Button baby photo contest and a mushroom eating contest. The local restaurants will line the street with booths selling their own food specialties, and antique cars will invite inspection along South Broad Street.

Like almost all historical traditions, however, celebrations go through changes, and that is true of the Mushroom Festival as well. The most significant changes this year are the parking, the shortening of the festival site and the abandonment of the parade, which normally took place on Friday evening. The parking

In the past few years, parking was held in the Exelon lot just to the east of the borough. That lot is now under construction The new parking site is at the Chatham Financial lot on McFarlan Road. The visitors will then be bused to the festival.

To access McFarlan from the west (Kennett Square), drive east out of town on Baltimore Pike, turn right onto McFarlan

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at the medical center and drive about a mile. Coming west from Chadds Ford and other points east, exit Route 1 at the Kennett Square exit and turn left on McFarlan at the first stoplight. Drive about a mile to the parking lot.

Library construction

In deference to the construction of the new Kennett Square Library along Willow Street, the site of the festival will start at Church Alley on the east and run to Lafayette Street on the west. In previous years, the soup-and-wine competition tent, which also housed the Mushroom Eating event, sat on the corner of State and Willow, but the library building work prevents that this year and for the future.

Tents

There will be new tent sites this year: two of them placed on Broad Street for mushroom growing and lecture events; the other one Union Street for entertainment.

The rowdy Mushroom Eating Contest on Sunday will be in the Union Street tent.

The soup and wine gala that had previously been held at the Willow Street tent has been dropped for this year.

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Antique cars will line South Broad Street on Saturday.

The mushroomeating contest generates excitement at the festival.

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Soup

Mushroom soup, which was formerly produced and sold by the Kennett Square Masons at their headquarters on Center and Cypress Street, has been taken over by Sunny Dell Foods and will be sold from a booth outside on Broad Street.

“We are optimistic and excited to be back in town,” Puoci said, adding that as president she was pleased that last year’s event went so well in a small, enclosed space.

“It was successful. I think people enjoyed [the smaller space]. I’ve heard both though. I’ve heard some people say they want it back there again. The other feedback is that we need to get back to the charm of the town,” she said.

Those features include the popular growing exhibit, the cooking contest, musical entertainment, Cute-as-a-Button, the mushroom eating contest, children’s rides, painted mushrooms, souvenirs and a host of vendors.

“It’s chock full,” Ferranto said.

Visitors will enjoy plenty of what they remember from the past, but there are a few changes.

The organizers have made some additions, too.

The artistic painted mushroom competition that formerly

Continued on Page 12 Sunny Dell Foods has created a mushroom soup recipe just for the festival.

A long line of tents houses vendors of many varieties of crafts.

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featured 75-pound models has been reduced the size to 16 inches and 25 pounds, and they can be bid on. There will, however, be one very large one that will be raffled off.

Under a red tent and at several other locations along the route, a unique festival mushroom soup will be available in 8-ounce containers for consumption on the spot or to take home with a lid. The recipe was developed by Sunny Dell Foods and will likely be uniquely available at the festival, Ferrante said.

Both Puoci and Ferranto are lifelong Kennett Square area residents. Puoci grew up in Kennett Square and has for years served as the Kennett Fire Company administrator.

Ferranto is the daughter of mushroom growers Roro and Bear Ferranto, and she continues their Buona Foods mushroom company.

Both Puoci and Ferranto have been going to the Mushroom Festival for most of its 36 years, and the memories stir their hearts and guide the planning of this year’s event.

They recalled the founding days back in the late 1980s when the festival kicked off with a banquet, the selection of a queen and a one-block parade.

As the event grew, the parade expanded and included the arrival of television cowgirl Sally Starr riding her horse along the route. Miss America joined in another year. Several years featured a mushroom-picking contest, while former Mushroom Festival Coordinator Lafferty once brought in a Ferris Wheel for entertainment. An art show had a run for several seasons.

Visitors at the festival can buy food from vendors or from restaurants that have brought booths to the street.

The size of the painted mushrooms has been changed to make them smaller with one big one to raffle off.

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The growing exhibit demonstrates to the public the life cycle of the mushroom crop.

Puoci and Ferranto let out a collective groan when they recalled the arrival once of a hurricane that forced the cancellation of the second day of the event.

Visitors through the years have included Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding, local legislators and a Mummer’s Band in the parade.

Ahead of the event, Puoci and Ferranto worked with the logistics of pulling the festival together and making it run smoothly.

Already Puoci has made parking arrangements and hauling all those guests from the off-site parking lot.

There are many more tasks for them as well. Puoci said she has a board of directors that are unanimously experienced in accomplishing their tasks. There are permits to be obtained, gates to be installed, permission from property and parking lot owners, security, police protection, financial arrangements, signs and publicity.

“The board made the transition easier,” Puoci said.

“It’s like a giant puzzle and everyone puts in their part,” Ferranto said.

Another aspect that Puoci and Ferranto want to assure the public is the support the Mushroom Festival brings to the community. In the years the event has been going on, it has contributed an estimated $1 million to local nonprofits. It also contributed content to boxes that are given out by Kennett Area Community Service at the holiday season.

Last year they contributed $65,000, and they expect that continue at least at that level. The festival generates income from sponsorships, vendors and the admission cost of $5 per person.

Ferranto said the festival carries its financial load. “People don’t understand we pay for police, public works and security. None of that is donated time because people need to be paid,” she said.

The Mushroom Festival is offering an App for personal cell phones so people can scan a QR code along the route and be informed of all that is going on for their visit.

The theme for the festival this year is “Growing Strong.”

“That applies to the festival and the community,” Ferranto said.