40 Our Brown County • March / April 2015 courtesy photos
MOREL FESTIVAL continued from 38
Jeff Lancaster, and several members from mycological societies from across the country.
The adult tickets for the weekend are down-right reasonable. You get a choice of tickets and prices so that you can customize your festival experience. If you go on-line to their website < www. morelfestival. com > you can order tickets right up to April 15. After that, you can still get’ em at the gate.
The on-line tickets run $ 125 for an Xtreme V. I. P. ticket which entitles you to entrance to the Bill Monroe Memorial Music Park and Campgrounds, any or all the lectures and classes, your choice of“ forays,” admission to the concerts, the official Morel Festival tee shirt, a spore bag for hunting, and entry to the championship hunt. $ 75 will get you an“ Original V. I. P.” ticket that includes entrance for the weekend, admission to the concerts, the foray of your choice, and a festival tee shirt. A $ 40 ticket gets you in for the weekend, the classes, and concerts. After April 15 you can still get tickets at the gate but the prices go up a little bit. They will be $ 160 for the‘ Xtreme V. I. P.” ticket and $ 90 and $ 50 respectively for the others. Day passes will be available at the gate for $ 25 and kids 12 and under still get in free with a paying adult. Concert only( after 7 p. m.) tickets will be just $ 10.
The Morel Festival is head-quartered at the Bill Monroe Memorial Music Park and Campground located in Bean Blossom. The park is 55 acres of trees and camp sites that accommodate your basic land yacht to popup campers and primitive. But if you leave the RV at home there are many local lodging options.
I’ m looking forward to the Morel festival because no matter how good you are at ferreting out fungi you can always learn something new. I found myself in a fungus finding slump a while back and I was having a terrible time. I couldn’ t figure out whether I was wearing the wrong style of camouflage or the mushroom mating call I was using wasn’ t the right dialect for the morels of Southern Indiana. Maybe I was wearing my upland boots looking for low land morels.
If you find yourself identifying with any of these little glitches in the sport, you just might want to consider upping your game by spending an edifying weekend at the morel festival in Bean Blossom. Friendly folks are there and ready to help you out. So come on down and have fun with the fungi at the Bill Monroe Memorial Music Park and Campgrounds April 23 through April 25, 2015. •