Fungi Town is an annual three-day community led arts and science festival that celebrates fungi through talks, art, film, science and education.
We are planning an exciting line up for this year’s Fungi Town. If you have ideas or want to get involved please get in touch, we would love to hear from you.
To get a flavour of what Fungi Town is about check out last year’s programme below:
Marlow Renton demonstrates some amazing mushroom recipes from the new Wild Food UK Forager’s Cookbook.
Hear Marlow Renton of Wild Food UK describe and introduce wild edible fungi and answer your questions.
Join Abi from Oil & Oak and have some fun creating your own unique Mushroom Pennant. We’ll use calico and cut out your Pennant before designing your mushroom stamp and printing it onto your pennant. You can add some tassels or fringe too!
Suitable for all abilities, no sewing experience need, all materials provided.
Book on Oil & Oak website: www.oilandoak.co.uk/workshops
Join local writer and yeast expert Simon Poffley from The Fermentarium for a deep dive into the fizzy, flavoursome world of yeast-based drinks. Learn about the cultural journey of kombucha from Tibet to California, wrap your taste-buds around different yeast-derived items, and create your own kombucha.
Tickets £25 from Hay Castle website
Fungi Town invites everyone to join our joyful closing ceremony, the family-friendly Puff Ball parade. Wonderbrass, Wales’s biggest fun-loving community brass band, will lead the parade, from the Market Square to the Castle lawn, bringing the outdoor party with a mixture of jazz, pop, ska, funk and fun. We'd love to see some fungi fancy dress or just come as yourself and get in the fungi-groove to red hot interpretation of songs you know and love. Remember mushrooms dance best in the rain!
Join Abi from Oil & Oak and have some fun creating your own unique Mushroom Patch. Using fabric as collage, basic hand sewing techniques and fabric paint you’ll create a patch of dreams.
Suitable for all abilities, no sewing experience need, all materials provided.
Book on Oil & Oak website: www.oilandoak.co.uk/workshops
Join local author and forager Liz Knight from Forage Fine Foods on a masterclass to help you preserve and pickle seasonal food - including mushrooms!
Booking: Email tim@clan-cic.org
Join artist and printmaker Yuli Gates for a hands-on introduction to the art of lino printmaking — with a twist. In this workshop, you’ll learn traditional carving and printing techniques while exploring the fascinating process of creating natural printmaing inks from mushrooms, as detailed in the book and website: The Mushroom Color Atlas.
Opera singer and chef Haydn serves up home made garlic mushroom soup from Leaf Kitchen on Lion Street.
A fascinating discussion between clinical psychiatrist and leading expert Dr Ben Sessa and local author Nina Lyon about the science of mushrooms, and their use in treating issues such as addiction, depression and PTSD.
SOLD OUT
UK Premier of film featuring fungi experts Stephen Axford and Catherine Marciniak on a stunning journey through Australia’s wild landscapes. With breathtaking imagery and a soundtrack of symphonic proportions, Follow the Rain is a sensory experience that unearths the foundation of life down under.
SOLD OUT
2nd screening now available on Sunday 5 at 4pm
Screening to be hosted by Hay Castle.
Join James Scrivens from Coed Talylan for a hands-on workshop exploring simple, low-tech ways to grow your own mushrooms at home or in the garden. Together we’ll make cardboard spawn and learn how to cultivate oyster mushrooms – one of the easiest and most rewarding varieties to start with. Whether you’re curious about fungi, keen to grow your own food, or just want to get your hands on a practical skill, this session offers an accessible introduction to the world of mushroom cultivation.
Free Event - 10 places
From fungi leather to packaging, discover how scientists and designers are working with nature’s secret engineers to tackle real world problems, with Dr. Peter Wellham (Really Clever Co.) and Adam Davies (Ty Syml)
Free to join, meet at the Bean Box next to Hay bridge
Join mycoremediation specialist Sophia Pefanis (Alice) from Flete Field Lab and local author, activist and runner Joseph Emmett for a walk along the river to discuss ideas for using mushroom-powered filtration to help reduce pollutants in the River Wye. This approach is showing good results on rivers in Devon.
Baka Bakery will be featuring special mushroom fayre over the weekend of Fungi Town. You can find them on Facebook
Come and see, smell and touch some of the incredible mushrooms, toadstools and lichens growing wild around Hay. Bring in unusual fungi and see if our team of experts and enthusiasts can identify them.
FREE
Discover the microscopic world of soil and fungi with Hay Regenerative Soils. Bring a sample from your compost heap to look at under a microscope, identify fungal hyphae, spores and microorganisms from the soil food web. Learn about the importance of below-ground biodiversity whilst checking if your compost heap is active.
FREE
Curious about fungi and the future of sustainable design? Join us for a hands-on Introduction to Mycelium Materials workshop, where you’ll learn the basics of working with living fungal composites. Over 90 minutes, you’ll cast a small object using mycelium—the root-like structure of fungi—which you’ll take home to incubate and finish growing.
No experience or equipment is needed—just bring yourself and a sense of curiosity! All materials are provided.
Hay’s popular Saturday market will have plenty of treats in store for fungi lovers, from handmade foraging baskets by Sarah Adby, to specialty fungi from Marches Mushrooms, and don’t forget all the delicious yeast products, such as cheeses from Monkland Cheesmakers and 100% Hay, organic wine from Blackmountain Vineyard, and award-winning cider from Artistraw Cider.
Find the perfect gift for the mushroom lover in your life in Hay Castle’s pop-up fungal emporium.
Join Ali McKernan - the FUNgi Guy - for a family introduction to the extraordinary world of mushrooms and toadstools
Ever wondered what you would look like as a cartoon mushroom? This is your chance to find out. Monsieur Champignon will be interpreting you as your favourite fungus.
Find Monsieur Champignon in the Castle on Saturday
Your chance to take to the stage and show your talent with fungi-inspired music and poetry.
A quiz night sprouting with silliness! No need to be a mushroom expert - just bring your friends, your best guesses, and a sense of humour. It’s all for a good cause: entry is by donation (suggested £5), with every penny raised going to Hay Regenerative Soils CIC, helping create a carbon-neutral, community-led food system for Hay-on-Wye.
This event takes place at The Globe in Newport Street
How did you get into this?
An informal discussion with emerging mycologists, artists and fungi folk, tracing the unusual and often winding paths people take into the world of fungi. Presented by The Culturing Dish.
Narrated by Björk, Fungi: Web of Life follows biologist Dr. Merlin Sheldrake into the hidden world beneath our feet. From ancient rainforests to stunning time-lapse footage, discover how fungi connect all life on Earth - and may hold the key to our future.
Join seasoned guide, Head of Nature at The Lost Gardens of Heligan, and self-declared ‘mushroom tickler’ Dan Ryan, for a family-friendly fungi hunt through the hills above Hay. Whether you’re a curious beginner or experienced mycologist, all are welcome.
Dress for the weather, wear sturdy boots and, if you have them, bring a basket, small containers, penknife and hand lens.
NB: This isn't a forage for food, but a chance to get a closer look at Hay's rich fungal diversity, and collect specimens to display in the castle.
Meet in Oxford Road Car park for 11:30 departure
A short film telling the incredible story of a five-year mission to convert former Norfolk chicken sheds into a mushroom farm. Using less water, space, and minimal resources, this breakthrough method could reshape the future of food production.
FREE
As Hay is transformed into the UK’s first ever Fungi Town local shops will be dressing for the occasion. Take a tour of the town’s shop windows and choose your favourite display.
