Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras

Once again-«Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras» does not fail… I love this festival. Good food, drinks and good times. A great way to kick off the summer. A fun way to spend all or part of your Memorial Day Weekend. This festival that takes up several blocks off of downtown Morgan Hill, had found its home starting at the Community’s Cultural Center Amphitheater and working its way down Depot St. to Munchkinland. I have traveled to visit this event many times since its start years ago at the old Hill Country (where it started).

This event does not disappoint. The mushroom display and mushroom foods have been clearly marked with purple banners, so they are easy to find throughout the festival. A great selection of micro-​brews, beers and wine. There is even a wine tasting area where one can try a premium selection of local wineries.
The entertainment is top-​notch for this free event. I spend some time checking out the arts and craft vendors. Take-​a-​break; walk downtown, then come back to end with some great headliners in one of the two stages at both ends of the festival. This is wonderful way to spend the weekend with the family. There are rides for the kids of all ages and they seem to change them up year after year.
When you decide to go, don’t forget to see the celebrity chef demonstration inside. As far as food vendors go-​steak sandwiches are my favorite (with mushrooms). Bring a friend/​partner to share things with as I always walk away full.
The best part is that all the funds raised at this event go to help local schools with mini-​grants and a larger portion to Scholarships for high school seniors. They do an event in the afternoon that recognizes each of this years Mardi Gras scholarship recipients. At least 50 go on to college having benefited from the numerous volunteers and community members that help put this event on.
This event is well organized, has plenty of booths to see, arts and crafts to view. Parking is readily available. The lines for food are sometimes long but worth the wait. I feel safe enough to let my kids walk around alone as there are plenty of things to do. It is worth going out-​of-​your-​way to spend a day or two of your Memorial Day Weekend in Morgan Hill.

Dont expect a place filled with Mushroom delicacies … instead some beer. some wine and a whole lot of retail stores and dealers promoting their business … really was a serious disappointment

Pretty cool festival to attend if you’re in the area! Perfect to bring the whole family to this festival as well. Food, drinks, music, rides for the kids, and little booths with different items that may intrigue you to make a purchase. The food section has various varieties of mushrooms, the Tri-​Tip Sandwich line looked like the main hit. I was sold on their Hillbilly Peach Tea, so when you go next year make sure you grab one, it won’t disappoint you. Parking seemed limited but walking never bothered me.

Had a great time this year. Very nice vendors, good arts and crafts and food. The shrimp scampi with mushroom over rice was yummy but long lines. The band’s were really good. A suggestion would be to go early because it gets crowded. I liked that they have places to sit and eat. A lot of festivals don’t provide that. Liked the chef demos and mushroom booth. Good festival for kids since they have a big kids section. Felt sorry for the dogs people brought since the festival is on concrete and it got hot on Sunday. Overall had a great time. Glad they keep the admission ffee. Makes it affordable for families.

Not bad but not great… this was our first time. What floored me was that there were two places selling deep fried mushrooms and one selling portobello sandwiches, all three at stands that clearly hit the fair/​festival circuit? Where are the stuffed mushrooms, mushrooms for sale, mushroom dishes, local mushroom booths, etc??? Come on… we are a small town… my wife and I were ready for mushroom madness and all manner of delicious mushroom treats and wham, nothing. They also needed more tables in the food area bad. Nice enough street fair, but the name is flat out deceptive.

This happens to be one of my favorite festivals to go to and I wait all year to go here and I usually try to go all weekend. I’ve been coming here for a few years now so it’s almost like a tradition to come here. I am not a fan of mushrooms whatsoever but I like a lot of the vendors here and of course the yummy food. While Morgan Hill is a fairly small city and there’s not too much going on here, the crowds do come out for this great festival which is held in their lovely downtown area.
There are tons of vendors here some selling really good things like authentic sports memorabilia, beautiful oil paintings and lovely jewelry (toe rings, anklets) and then there are those vendors who will harass you to come sign up for «free trips», purchasing house appliances and things like that. One of my favorite vendors here is Hillbilly Tea, they are based out of Riverbank and are always here with a long line. They serve the best sweet tea and peach tea ever and they usually are running a deal which is purchasing a big mug for $ 14 with free refills all weekend.
Food options here are amazing, I could come here for the food alone. While it is a mushroom festival there aren’t a lot of mushroom dishes being served, you would expect majority of the food to be mushroom based but I’m glad it’s not like that. Some of the mushroom dishes I saw were stuffed mushrooms, beer battered mushrooms, mushroom scampi over rice and various other dishes that included mushrooms. Most of the food is your typical festival/​fair food, lots of fried foods like corn dogs, fried artichokes, garlic fries, funnel cakes as well as tamales, shrimp, pizza, turkey legs, sausages and everything else you could possibly think of. But the real star was Mansmith’s BBQ, they had a continuous long line all weekend but their awesome Tri-​Tip sandwiches on grilled garlic bread was so worth the wait.
While most festivals of this kind have a lot of vendors primarily for adults as well as alcohol and things like that there were a lot of kids here and lots for them to do. There was a kids area with your typical carnival rides, a kids music stage with Elsa from Frozen performing and they even had pony rides and a petting zoo. It’s always nice for festivals to be family friendly and this is definitely one of them. There was also entertainment for the older crowd, they had a main stage with a wonderful band that played everything from Salsa to R&B and they surely had everyone dancing. There were also cooking demos and a wine garden, quite interesting.
This festival is held Memorial Day weekend every year and I highly recommend coming here, despite some of the bad reviews I guarantee you will have a good time. They have great food and drinks, wonderful entertainment and it’s free, how can you possibly beat that!

Same food, same crafts every year. Very light on the Mardi Gras! Kinda hokey, carnie feel with overpriced food and bad beer. I wouldn’t waste my time unless there is a band that I really wanted to see.

Great outdoor festival. Most of the similar festivals that I’ve been to are much smaller, so it was a pleasant surprise to see how large this one was. Taking up several blocks of town, there were food vendors, arts/​craft vendors, live music, a kids section and plenty of local beer and wines.
I was fortunate enough to park and walk from my friend’s place, but there’s plenty of parking around. While there were a lot of attendees, it didn’t seem overly crowded while walking around or looking for a place to sit.
Although I may not typically go out of my way to go to a festival in Morgan Hill, I would recommend this festival for anyone who’s looking for a weekend activity.

I love mushrooms. So as my love for artichokes and the artichoke festival is heaven, I thought this festival would be as well. But that was not to be.
First and foremost, just where are the mushrooms???
Sure come here if you like festivals but don’t come if you like mushrooms. Most vendors didn’t even offer a mushroom dish. One advertises that they do but after waiting in a line as long as the Great Wall, you get to the window to find out, A. False advertising and B. The one mushroom dish they offer has the mushrooms being a condiment on a sandwich. It was oh so very disappointing.
And $ 3 for a water or soda!?! That is highway robbery.
The food area was poorly set up as there is just no room to have proper lines form and traffic go by. The petting zoo looked like a sad home for depressed animals and the few kids rides were surprisingly pricy.
I was very disappointed. Left mushroomless and sad. Some vendors even ran out of stuff halfway through the first day!
It was clean, the weather was good and for the most part people were friendly so that earns three stars. But I do not know if thats worth it to earn a repeat visit from us next year.

I have 2 questions. Both of which have been asked by many other Unilocalers, but this is my 2015 experience and my first Mushroom Mardi Gras.
Where are the friggin Mushrooms? And why call it Mardi Gras.
I had a couple of other options of how to spend my Memorial Day Saturday, one being Burgers and Brew Fest in Fremont. I chose MMG.
There might have been 3 vendors offering mushroom type food. Fried, sautéed, or Portobello sandwich. Maybe a stuffed mushroom somewhere. But the festival seems to have a severe identity crisis. Not many mushrooms, and zero Mardi Gras.
It’s mostly county fair food, priced higher. With no damned mushrooms.
Lots of craft booths if you are into that, but no freaking Mushrooms.
Don’t get me wrong… I had a good time. Getting to meet up with old friend and his new family was worth the drive. The Mexican street corn was outstanding. Beer cold and tasty. Another plus was that it is dog friendly, so my husky, Darth Mortimer had a great time eating scraps and no shortage of butts to sniff. But no friggin Mushrooms.
I would come back next year, but not after looking closer into other events.
Can’t believe how early I got up and drove just to hear old people rave about they’re shitty calamari and garlic fries.
Step up the Mushrooms MoHill or change the name of festival. Book definitely doesn’t match the cover.

I wonder how much Genetically Modified Foods/​oils do they have at their vendors? It has to be a plethora amount of different foods besides Mushrooms. Other than the drones who have not been awaken yet I have yet to see some of those round up 2−4D mushrooms fried with GM soybean oil. I was hoping for the other fresh mushrooms where I can allow myself to a spiritual journey. Unfortunately they are not allowed. Really what an unfortunate event. Besides the Chamber of Commerce has Sygenta down in Gilroy sponsored it? Are they also selling genetically modified mushrooms? I am interested in buying some because it is safe.
As long as the weather complies to some of that wonderful geoengineering we can enjoy breathing that barium and aluminum air!

One would think a mushroom festival would feature more food booths with mushroom dishes. We did sample some stuffed mushrooms and beer battered mushrooms while there. It was a hot day but very few shaded areas where one could cool off under. Perhaps the event organizers could invest in some tent like covered areas for future events?
The music was awesome. Great lineup! Enjoyed most of the booths there and walked away with some great purchases like body products from The Coconut Hut, BBQ Sauce from Crazy Charlie’s, glazed pecans from Crazy 4 Nuts and dip mixes from Spice It Up.

This festival has adopted a ticket for drinks system, which includes restricting vendors from selling soft drinks pretty much entirely, and the festival charges $ 3 a soda. That’s high by even festival standards.
This is suggested as a themed event, which only a few booths other then some of the food vendors even reflect.

NOT! The event was a hot, dirty, unsanitary garbage dump. There was absolutely no shade on a 100 degree day. They should have had open tents to provide a shade and rest place. We took my parents and my disabled son and it was sooooo bad we had to turn around and take us out of there… worst I have seen it in 20 years!!!

This is a big annual event for us MH locals. It used to be at the community park which is a stone throw away from my house. Not sure if I’m happy about them moving or sad about it. Happy bcuz we don’t get the foot traffic of people walking by our development or sad bcuz we can no longer enjoy the entertainment they have from our front yard.
This is similar to the Garlic Festival in Gilroy. Lots of vendors and food trucks. The weather is usually better this time of year than the Garlic Festival which is in late July.

This is what I just don’t understand — it is a MUSHROOM festival… where are the MUSHROOMS? When I go to a themed festival, I want to be bathed in whatever it is supposed to be about. For instance — the Greek festival — they have Greek beer, Greek liquor, Greek lamb and gyros and hummus and olives. Greek art and jewelry. And sexy Greek women.
The Mushroom Festival? 1 vendor selling fried mushrooms and 1 vendor selling stuffed mushrooms — along with onion rings, corn dogs, and other non mushroom items. No mushroom art. No mushroom jewelry. No mushroom hairspray or cologne. Not even sure how they get away with calling it a mushroom festival.
That said, it is a pretty big event and they have rides and a petting zoo/​pony ride for the kids. The beer is cold and they have some cool wineries represented like Guglielmo. This year the weather was a perfect 80 degrees which made for a nice afternoon unlike years in the past when it has been +100. As long as the weather cooperates and the kids still enjoy it, we will continue to make the trek in the years to come.

HUGE South Bay Festival with endless vendors and great crowds!
This festival is next to downtown Morgan Hill and not IN it. I think this was pretty smart considering the sheer size of this thing.
TWO food courts, both with excellent selections — brisket, turkey leg, oysters, and so much more.
Several stages with entertainment. Lots of people and good times all around. It was nice to be in the warm weather when the rest of the bay was a bit cooler.
Highly recommend!

Have been going for the past two years! Last year we reached quite early so didn’t have to wait too long to get food and drinks. However, this year we reached a little late in the afternoon. The place was packed! There was hardly any space to walk and we had to wait a long while to get our food and beer.
Most other stalls are just okay. They also have some games and rides for kids. We just end up going for the lovely fresh mushrooms! The fried mushrooms and zucchini and garlic fries are just fantastic! We also tried the garlic chicken teriyaki food bowl and it was awesome. Of course, it came with a side of mushrooms!

How you going to call yourself a mushroom festival and serve corn dogs? I was expecting to try mushrooms in a variety of forms such as, burgers, pizza, ice cream and beer. After all, that’s what makes the Gilroy Garlic Festival unique. Imagine my disappointment when my choices were chicken strips, carne asada nachos, and funnel cakes. Hah?
Staying with the carnival theme, this festival offers a variety of rides for kids. My four year old son had a great time on the superhero bouncy house, tea cups, and car rides. You can also expect to find your typical carnival games and win lame prizes that your kids will never play with once they leave the festival.
***** Please note– Each ride requires 3 to 5 tickets per ride. You can also purchase 24 tickets for $ 20.00.
There were a ton of vendors at the festival selling arts, crafts, clothing, handbags, and sunglasses. I expected this, and appreciate all the entrepreneurs on-​site trying to earn a living. However, I did not like that some vendors were there just to capitalize on the large crowd. A Geico insurance agent at the mushroom festival? Really?
Overall, I was disappointed in my first and only visit to this annual festival. The food was below average and expensive, and it felt like a flea market atmosphere. Do yourself a favor, and go check out downtown Morgan Hill instead. At least there are cool restaurants and bars you can hang out instead of wasting your time and money at this tourist trap.

I was expecting mushrooms galore! The «food court» was REALLY small. Out of the 7 – 8 food vendors, only 1 – 2 had mushrooms on their menu and none of it blew my socks off. Basically if I Googled their recipes, I could have made the food at home.
The only cool part was getting to try Chicken Adobo Fries from the Rice Rocket truck and getting shaved ice from the stall that let you choose your own flavors (I made mine a yummy rainbow, can’t just stick to one flavor).
I was extremely disappointed and hope next time that the mushrooms were the REAL headliner in this festival. It seemed like they were just tossed in the name just to get some draw, but it almost had NOTHING to do with it.