{"id":36841,"date":"2025-05-28T09:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T13:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=36841"},"modified":"2025-05-28T09:01:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T13:01:01","slug":"parade-to-kick-40th-annual-2025-mushroom-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=36841","title":{"rendered":"Parade to kick 40th annual 2025 Mushroom Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Mushroom Parade Float in the 2025 Memorial
Day Parade. Photo by: Moonloop Photography.<\/p><\/div>\n

Historic Kennett Square will come alive with music, color, and small-town magic as The Mushroom Parade kicks off the 40th Anniversary of the Mushroom Festival on Thursday, Sept. 4, at 6:00 PM.<\/p>\n

Produced by Kennett Collaborative and funded by the Mushroom Festival, the<\/p>\n

parade will march along a familiar route, starting on South Broad Street and turning west onto State Street\u2014mirroring the beloved Holiday Light Parade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mushroom Festival is one of the most important events for Kennett Square\u2019s economy\u2014but it\u2019s so much more than a weekend celebration,\u201d said Daniel Embree, Executive Director of Kennett Collaborative. \u201cYear after year, the Festival supports local nonprofits with generous grants that strengthen our entire community year round\u2014including Kennett Collaborative, Kennett Area Community Services, Family Promise of Southern Chester County, local fire companies, and so many others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Embree added, \u201cWe want the Mushroom Parade to be a joyful expression of all things Kennett Square and we invite people to get creative, weird, and wild as they show off their love for fungi and this beautiful and welcoming town we all care so deeply about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gina Puoci, President of the Mushroom Festival\u2019s Board of Directors, said the idea for the parade felt like the perfect way to honor the milestone year. \u201cWe knew we wanted to do something special to start our 40th anniversary celebration\u2014and we thought, who better to bring that energy than Kennett Collaborative? They already organize the Memorial Day and Holiday Light<\/p>\n

Parades, so we were thrilled when they said yes to taking this on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennett Square is the heart of the U.S. mushroom industry, producing over a million pounds weekly and driving local agriculture and economy.<\/p>\n

Anyone interested in participating in the parade\u2014whether with a float, musical group, dance troupe, or whimsical mushroom-themed creation\u2014is invited to submit a short application by Friday, August 22 at mushroomparade.org<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spectators looking to celebrate mushrooms and the charm of Kennett Square should plan a long weekend in the Brandywine Valley, beginning with Thursday\u2019s parade. Friday offers time to explore Longwood Gardens and the borough\u2019s renowned shops and restaurants, followed by the biggest and best Mushroom Festival Kennett Square has ever seen on Saturday, September 6 and Sunday, September 7, 2025. The Mushroom Festival is always held the weekend after Labor Day, and the theme for this year\u2019s festival is ‘Harvesting 40 Years Together’.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss your chance to be part of this fungi-tastic celebration of Kennett Square\u2019s identity, artistry, and community spirit!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Historic Kennett Square will come alive with music, color, and small-town magic as The Mushroom Parade kicks off the 40th Anniversary of the Mushroom Festival on Thursday, Sept. 4, at 6:00 PM. Produced by Kennett Collaborative and funded by the Mushroom Festival, the parade will march along a familiar route, starting on South Broad Street […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3912,11512,280,4150,4426],"class_list":["post-36841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-featured","tag-kennett-collaborative","tag-kennett-square","tag-mushroom-festival","tag-parade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36842,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36841\/revisions\/36842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}