Morel
Festival is Back
April 25 – 27 2014
Jeff Morgan at last year’ s event. photo by Jules Dunlap
~ by Jeff Tryon
As winter dissolves into spring, a traditional passion begins to rise in Brown County, a mania that draws men, women and children into the woods, heads bowed, a stick in one hand and some sort of sack in the other. It’ s mushroom huntin’ time again! This year’ s season will be highlighted by the second annual Brown County Morel Festival, celebrating all things relating to the delicious, spongy fungi that pop up on the forest floor each spring as the ground thaws and warms.
The festival at the Bill Monroe Music Park in Bean Blossom will feature lots of live music, expert lectures on mycology, and guided hunts and“ forays” to search for the delectable sponge mushrooms and their likely places. The festival will feature over 15 bands performing all types of music.“ This is not just a bluegrass festival or a folk festival— it is a morel festival. The music performers will be as diverse as the crowd that is attending,” said Randy LaVere, one of the event’ s organizers.“ We’ ve tried to include as many folks from the Brown County music scene as possible, to showcase the talent that lies in these hills.”
Performers will include southern rock / country from Brown County’ s own The Cox Brothers, folk singer-songwriter Chicago Farmer, bluegrass from the
30 Our Brown County • March / April 2014