By Chris Barber
Contributing Writer

Kennett Square’s signature event, the Mushroom Festival, will return for the 39th time on Sept. 7 and 8. This celebration of Pennsylvania's number-one agricultural crop routinely attracts upwards of 100,000 people over its two days – many of them from beyond the Pennsylvania state line and some even reported from international locations.

At the helm of the event this year and in recent years are longtime leaders Gina Puoci and Gale Ferranto.

Puoci is a Kennett Square native who is the administrator of the Kennett Fire Company.

Ferranto grew up in a mushroom-growing family and is the president of Buona Foods, which processes and packages canned mushrooms in Oxford.

The co-chairpersons said they can both look back at more mushroom festivals and they remember special features that came and went through the years.

Almost 40 years ago, the Mushroom Festival began as a simple celebration that consisted of a brief parade for non-profit organizations along State Street and a coronation of the “Mushroom Queen” the night before.

For many years, Kathi Lafferty and others oversaw the festival and initiated attractions like a Ferris Wheel, the Friday night parade, a wine festival, a mushroom-picking contest and an art show.

Remaining popular and continuing to please the visitors are the mushroom-cooking contests, the vendors, a “Cute as a Button” contest, a mushroom-eating contest, growing demonstrations, painted ceramic mushrooms, mushroom soup, the annual designed T-shirt contest, the Saturday car show, numerous vendors, music and the children’s entertainment stations.

The festival has also been visited through the years by numerous celebrities, including stars from cooking shows, competitive eaters, a former state Secretary of Agriculture, and Ed Rendell, the very popular former Pennsylvania governor who also served as the Mayor of Philadelphia.

Ferranto and Puoci are especially excited this year about the cooking contest called “Chopped.”

This contest involves presenting the contestants with a bag of various foods (including and especially mushrooms), and they are challenged to produce the best dish within a limited time.

Up to now, the contest was a one-time event, usually on Saturday. This year the popularity has been so high, Ferranto said, that they are having two semi-final events producing four finalists on Saturday, and those finalists will compete for the championship on Sunday.

Food celebrity guest and judge will be Carla Hall, the popular TV cook and food program hostess. She will be one of three judges for the Amateur Cook-Off Competitions and will also give a cooking demonstration during the festival.

Perhaps the event that attracts the most excitement and raucous reaction is the fried mushroom eating contest. This attraction brings enthusiastic cheering and applause from the spectators.

Few people visiting from out of town miss the growing demonstration tent. Growers from mushroom companies throughout the region set up actual compost beds of developing mushrooms that show how the fungi are planted, grown and then picked.

Scores of vendors line State Street and some of the side streets, offering attendees a wide variety of crafts, gifts, toys, specialty foods and promotions – especially mushroom items to eat on the spot.

Puoci said applications for a spot along the way are so popular that they fill up by mid-summer.

“We have more applications than spaces,” she said.

Organizing and running the annual Mushroom Festival is no easy task, nor is it something that the leaders and other volunteers can throw together in a short time, Puoci said. In fact, they apply with the borough the preceding January or February to hold the event.

The Mushroom Festival is overseen by a 13-member board and operated by scores of volunteers.

The board meets twice a month for the entire year ahead of the festival to organize all the festivities.

Puoci said they are responsible not only for being present in September for the event, but they also must ensure that the festival conforms to all codes. They have to manage the finances, assure safety for everyone and develop a plan for providing parking.

Just a few days before the opening, Puoci arrives on State Street with spray paint and lays out the locations of all the vendors.

She also assures that the fire company reviews each vendor and location for safety codes ahead of time.

The theme of the festival this year is “Spawning the Future.” Spawning is a mushroom term that is the equivalent in vegetables of planting seeds.

Ferranto said she likes the theme because the Mushroom Festival contributes thousands of dollars each year to worthy local non-profit organizations.

Over time, the Mushroom Festival has raised and distributed more than $1 million to local non-profits.

She said the average gift is about $3,000 to each organization, but that is enough to make a difference in a small company or agency to grow in some way.

The Mushroom Festival takes place on State Street in Kennett Square from Church Alley to Garfield Street. Branches run south on Broad Street to Cypress for the mushroom promotions and growing tent (and further down on Saturday for the car show), on Union Street to Cypress for culinary events, and the Liberty Place Market area for children’s activities.

The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. An information booth will be set up at the intersection of State at Union.

Parking is at the Chatham Financial lot on McFarlan Road (with a sign guiding drivers from Baltimore Pike). There is also space at the Kennett High School parking lot. Shuttle buses will carry visitors to the festival.

Entry to the Mushroom Festival is $5 per person, which is cash only. Festival-goers will receive a wristband for entry. For more information, follow the Mushroom Festival on social media or visit the website at mushroomfestival.org.