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Chester County Press

Weekend rain washes out half of the Mushroom Festival

09/10/2018 10:41AM ● By J. Chambless

On Saturday afternoon, the streets were packed for the annual Mushroom Festival in Kennett Square.

By John Chambless
Staff Writer

The annual Mushroom Festival in Kennett Square fell victim to last weekend's persistent rain, disappointing thousands of visitors and washing out half of the borough's biggest weekend of the year.

The Community Parade was held Friday at 4 p.m., and despite the threat of ongoing showers, the festival was held Saturday. The rain stopped at around 10 a.m., and the whole day ended up being dry, attracting a large crowd. On Saturday evening, however, organizers heeded warnings and canceled the Sunday events.

Historic Kennett Square posted the following notice on Facebook on Saturday evening:

“The Chester County Emergency Operations Center has issued warnings for 2-3 inches of rain with flooding for Sunday, Sept. 9. Therefore for everyone’s safety, the Mushroom Festival will close at 7 pm on Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018 and not reopen. The Saturday Evening Concert will proceed as scheduled.”

So, while the headliner concert by Alejandro Escovedo did take place as scheduled on Saturday night, the streets were empty on Sunday, washing out the 5K Run and 2-Mile Fun Walk, the second day of the popular Street Fair, culinary demonstrations, the Soup and Wine Event, live bands and more.

Facebook comments expressed sadness about the cancellation, which will cut short this year's profits and affect donations to a wide range of community organizations.

Andrew Miller operates the Kennett Flash, and was instrumental in bringing Escovedo to the festival. The renowned artist attended a lunch discussion at the club on Saturday that was led by Luis Tovar of the Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs. Escovedo and opening artist Don Antonio attended the event, which was attended by members of Historic Kennett Square.

The Kennett Flash posted a live video of Escovedo in concert on Saturday night, with the note, “Such a special evening. Thank you to Alejandro Escovedo, Don Antonio and the whole band. Thank you to all our sponsors. And thank you to all who attended!” The video has already gotten more than 2,000 views.