Telluride Mushroom Festival
Another significant event took place in August. This was the annual Telluride Mushroom Festival. The last time I attended was 2017 so it was nice to return to this beautiful mountain town and hang out with a great group of fellow myco-nuts. The TMF is now recognized as one of the premier myco-centric conferences in the country as well as one of the most long-lived. The first Telluride Mushroom Festival that I attended was in 1981! Lots of water under the bridge since then. But I was pleased to find that the original spirit of the TMF that was evident in 1981 was still very much alive in 2017 and 2025. Paul Stamets is fond of saying ‘mushroom people are nice people,’ and I have to agree. The vibe over the few days was more like a meeting of the local garden club, very informal, very friendly, and all were there because of their passion for all things fungal. Many were amateurs; many were professionals; and there was a delightful mix of sharing knowledge and mutual respect, the professionals happy to teach what they know and the amateurs, many of them also quite knowledgeable, eager to contribute their wisdom and experience to the conversation. The TMF was a perfect example of ‘citizen science’ in action. Mycology is one field where there is still room for uncredentialed but no less knowledgeable folks to make contributions and share knowledge.
And the conference was informative and educational as well as lots of fun. There was plenty there for the psychedelic enthusiasts but it was by no means limited to that. There were workshops and presentations on medicinal and gourmet mushrooms as well as psychedelic mushrooms. There were cultivation workshops on growing a variety of mushrooms. There were workshops on cooking with mushrooms, on making dyes and textiles from mushrooms,There were workshops and presentations on medicinal mushrooms, mycoremediation, fungal genetics, and biodiversity, There were, of course, daily mushroom forays led by experts such as Alan Rockefeller and others, and judging by the abundance of species on display in the ID tents, Telluride continued to yield a rich mushroom harvest despite it being a particularly bad year for mushrooms (almost no rain). The schedule for the festival will give you an idea of the scope of topics covered.
A particular highlight of the conference was Paul Stamet’s presentation based on his just published book, Psilocybin Mushrooms in Their Natural Habitats. This is an incredible resource, the result of years of work by Paul and his team. His presentation was outstanding, and very similar (but not identical) to his talk at Psychedelic Science in Denver in June. This book really stands, for now, as the definitive source-book on psilocybin mushrooms, and I urge everyone to buy it, read it, and give copies to all your friends. Many thanks to Paul for this contribution and all you do for the myco-community.
I was also active at the conference. I gave my standard rap on the ‘stoned ape’ theory, Psilocybin and the Origin of Consciousness, as a keynote on Friday night. Earlier that day I did a book signing at Between the Covers bookstore to promote ESPD50 and 55 and the second edition of my memoir, The Brotherhood of the Screamig Abyss, both offered by Synergetic Press.
On Saturday I presented another keynote, this time on the concept of symbiosis as a fundamental right of organisms. The title was Natural Psychedelics and Symbiotic Rights. This is a concept that I think needs to be discussed more often in forums where the focus is on the proper relationships between the human species and symbiotic allies such as psilocybin mushrooms. But it really applies to creating right relationships with all plants, fungi and animals that we rely on for food, medicines, and other essential resources. The entire Biosphere is a web of alliances that runs on Symbiosis.
Later Saturday afternoon I participated in the Panel Discussion on Psychedelics.
The Mushroom Parade
Of course one of the best events at TMF was on the last day: The Mushroom Parade! It was an inspiring event and the perfect way to close out the festival. Some of the costumes were incredible, and reflected all the work and creativity that infused the spirit of the festival. One of the most impressive to me, but not the winner, was a walking, talking version of the Tsalli Mushroom Shaman.
So overall, the TMF was a very intense but enjoyable few days, packed with activities and information, and also a chance to reconnect with old friends and meet a lot of new ones. If you’re looking for a good, psychedelic-friendly event to attend next summer, I highly recommend the TMF! Much less expensive than either Psychedelic Science or Burning Man and a lot more fun (depending on tastes of course).
