Emma Anglesey
It’s been in the works for about three years. I used to be really fearful of fungi and there’s, you know, like a lot of people in our culture, we kind of grow up learning to be wary and a little scared of it and make sure we don’t pick anything or eat anything. And there’s a little bit of a love story involved. I met my husband, Anthony Kerrison, three years ago and he is so passionate about fungi and mushrooms and so knowledgeable. And we spent a lot of time in the forest learning about fungi and learning how to identify fungi. And the more I started learning about fungi and mushrooms, the more I just discovered it is such an amazing kingdom and there’s so much to learn and it has so much to offer. And so we started talking about a festival quite early on, but it wasn’t something that we wanted to take on by ourselves. So we approached Fergus Brown and Michael Townsend from Mr Brown and Towns, Mushroom Garden, and Lauren Thomas, who is the owner of Avocado Moon. And the five of us started meeting over 2022, I suppose, lots of meetings to talk about ideas and things we could do. And fast forward to this year and we reached out to a bunch of mushroom growers, including Tunnel Hill Mushrooms and Dean Smith, who owns that down in Hobart and Events Tasmania, and we’ve manifested a festival.
Lucie Cutting
Wow. To go from just kind of being scared of it, to loving it, to building a festival, that’s quite the journey. Have you organised a festival before, Emma? I know that you’re a musician, so you’ve been very involved in them, but have you organised one?
Emma Anglesey
Yeah, so I founded Festival of Architecture and Sound that runs, coincide with Open House Hobart. And I’ve worked for Junction Arts Festival and 10 Days on the Island, and a whole bunch of festivals. So it’s not something that feels foreign. And as a musician, I’ve been involved with lots of festivals, playing at them. So yeah, it hasn’t felt like something too strange. And I guess when you start thinking about fungi, and you think about all the different elements, the food, the forest, the forays, the foraging, workshops and growing, you know, there’s just so many different elements and ways that people can tap into it. And something that really interests me is the creativity around fungi and what it offers to art as well. So yeah, it’s, I guess, felt something like something that was very natural.
Lucie Cutting
This is Emma Anglesey. We’re talking about a new festival, newly announced Fungi the Festival, which will take place throughout June from the 1st till I think it was the 30th. Emma, do you consider this a fully fledged festival this year? Or is it a bit of a test run?
Emma Anglesey
Yeah, it’s absolutely a test run. So we are running a small amount of incubator events around the state to test ideas. And really this year has been about flushing out fungophiles and finding people who are interested and who are passionate about fungi. So we’re doing a bit of a call out to the community for people who want to get involved and start speaking with us. And we want to work towards a full festival in 2025.
Lucie Cutting
What kind of events and where about can people expect events for this first year?
Emma Anglesey
So we’ve got events in and around Hobart and Launceston. And so we’ve got wild forays and forums, artistic workshops, farm tours, food experience, the racing trail and cultivation workshops. And we have some beautiful food venues like Aloft and Black Cow, Berta, the Royal Oak, Stillwater, Peppina, Grain of Siloes and so many more involved in cultivating beautiful fungi dishes for people to try. So yeah, we’re really excited about what we’ve got on offer this year. And we think there’s a lot of potential to grow.
Lucie Cutting
Emma Anglesey here of Fungi the Festival. Emma, it’s so exciting and, you know, don’t call me biased, but I am personally very excited about it too. For people who want more information about it to hear about the events, maybe sign up to a newsletter, where can they find that information?
Emma Anglesey
So they can find info at fungithefestival.com.au or at Fungi the Festival on all your social medias.
Lucie Cutting
And when will a program be released?
Emma Anglesey
So we’re going to release events every week leading into June. So there’ll be a handful of events that we release tickets to next week and then the following week we’ll release more and then the one after that there’ll be more.
Lucie Cutting
Looking forward to it. Thank you very much for your time, Emma.
Emma Anglesey
Thank you very much.
Source: abc.net.au
George Barham, an accomplished journalist and avid gambling enthusiast, serves as the esteemed Editor-in-Chief at fly-to-australia.com, Australia’s leading source for comprehensive gambling news and insights. With an unwavering passion for both the written word and the ever-evolving world of betting and gaming, George brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the helm of our editorial team.
