By Chris Barber
Contributing Writer

The 39th annual Kennett Square Mushroom Festival on Saturday and Sunday attracted what could easily have been estimated as tens of thousands of visitors eager to be entertained, fed and sold to.

Without questioning the crowd about where they came from, one could only guess from snippets of conversations or license plates:

“I’m up from Washington, DC.”

“Did you take Route One?”

“We’re not from around here”

“I’m from southern South Dakota.”

A Kentucky license plate.

“What’s that you’re eating?”

By the time the gates -- staffed by Kennett High School volunteers -- opened at 10 a.m. on Saturday, State Street was already heavily populated. As the hours went by, the crowd just grew exponentially.

Even as a brief rain storm on Saturday afternoon sent folks sheltering, the festivities resumed as soon as the rain abated.

Running from Church Alley to Garfield Street along State Street and into offshoot venues, the festival offered roughly three categories of attractions: vendors, scheduled events and displays.

The vendors – scores of them with their tents -- lined the sidewalks on both sides of the street. They sold the fruits of their creativity, ranging from interesting foods like spreadable bacon and individually shaped pasta to jewelry, clothing, and dog items.

One of the most popular vendors was the mushroom soup tent on Broad Street staffed by the local Masons. They had lines that ran more than half a block long, and they had to take time out to make more batches of the soup.

Almost as long was the line for Buona Foods’ fried mushrooms.

People were eager to taste the soup and those fries, and they could be heard discussing their reactions with their friends and families.

An atmosphere of friendliness and good manners prevailed as potential buyers carried on casual conversations with the vendors of the objects they had their eyes on.

Over at the food tent on South Union Street, there were two essential scheduled events: cooking and eating.

This year, unlike the previous years, the “chopped” cooking contest involved three rounds of competitions, rather than one.

“Chopped” contests at the festival involve the contestants being given a bag of various food-stuffs (always with mushrooms) and being asked to create something elegant out of them.

Semifinals on Saturday yielded four finalists on Sunday.

The final winner was Leigh Ann Stuart of King of Prussia, who put together an interesting salad of arugula with portabellas and warm balsamic sauce.

When she was announced as the winner, she dropped her jaw in surprise and said, “Far Out!”

Additionally, on Saturday, the food/cooking theme was enhanced by two demonstrations by television food celebrity Carla Hall.

She pleased her large audience with friendly banter and explanations of how she handled food.

On Sunday, the raucous mushroom-eating contest that traditionally attracts a large and excited crowd, did not disappoint the standing-room only audience.

This year it was preceded by a new event called En Fuego Fried Mushroom Eating contest.

In this, eighteen amateurs joined on the stage to see who could endure eating mushrooms that had been doused with increasing levels of hot sauce.

After four rounds, all the contestants finished successfully.

Onto the main event, the eating contest elicited cheers and boors from those who watched.

It was won by Bryant Grimm from Orwigsburg.

The displays were numerous throughout, but centered mostly on Broad Street.

The most frequently visited was the growers’ tent. In it, the various mushroom companies brought over beds of compost with the fungi at various levels of maturity and laid them out for people to see. The companies also apparently sent over some of their friendliest employees to staff the beds, because they answered the visitors’ questions – many of them – in a friendly manner and in great detail.

At one point on Sunday, the line stretched from the entrance to the growing tent near Cypress Street all the way up to State Street.

One person reported not even being able to get in because the crowd was so great.

Other displays were also popular: “Cute as a Button” where people drop dollars into boxes with pictures of their favorite kids; the ceramic mushrooms raffle designed by skilled artists and overseen by Jane Henry; and the souvenir stand selling festival shirts and mugs.

Kennett Consolidated School District’s recently arrived superintendent, Kimberly Rizzo Saunders, was on hand to meet her new neighbors and get acquainted with the town. She was extremely popular at her tent, and many people stopped to introduce themselves and talk with her.

The music persisted in the Liberty Place Market parking lot and a car show entertained visitors on South Broad Street.

Farther down the street at the El Rancho restaurant parking lot were numerous children’s jumping tents and a large bouncing tree for those who had no fear of heights.

The Mushroom Festival has grown in its 39 years from a short parade on State Street to the current two-day extravaganza uptown. Over the years, the proceeds from the event have been contributed to local non-profits to the tune of more than $1 million.

The festival is operated by many volunteers. This year the chairman is Gina Puoci and the activities director is Gale Ferranto.

In a previous interview, they agreed that the planning and preparations for the following year traditionally begin with meetings and evaluations shortly after the previous one ends.