FAQs

What is the overall plan for the weekend?

The Robson Valley Mushroom Festival will be held September 27- 29, 2024 at the Dunster Schoolhouse in Dunster BC. The festival will begin on Friday September 27, starting with registration at 4pm onward with arrival of participants and meet and greet and socializing and orientation to the events and an introductory presentation. The festival will run through the weekend and will include field trips, called “forays”, to various locations in the Robson valley with instructors who will focus on field identification of mushrooms and fungi. There will also be a number of workshops and presentations help at the school throughout the weekend.

What should I bring?

Bring typical gear for spending a day in the woods:

Collection basket or bag
Water
Snacks/lunch
Good footwear
Warm clothes
Rain gear

If you are a cell phone user, we recommend you download the iNaturalist app, as we will be using this app throughout the festival to document and catalogue the various species found during our forays. (We will provide a short instruction on using this app at the start of our forays).

Where can I stay?

There are no hotels in Dunster, BUT...

Camping space for tents and RVs is available at the school. There is no power or septic available for trailers, but there is access to washrooms and shower at the school, and there will also be porta-potty outhouses available.

Cost for camping is $25/night per tent/RV.

There are additional accommodation available at B&B’s in the area, as well as hotels in the neighboring communities of McBride, Tete Jaune, and Valemount.

What can I eat?

On Saturday evening, we will be hosting a delicious mushroom-themed gala dinner provided by Chef Julian Randall!

Tickets are $25.00 and must be purchased in advance on our Tickets Page.

Outside of that, there is a small general store in Dunster but no restaurants, so you are responsible for your own provisions. That being said….

On Saturday, if you will not be out on the Long Foray day trip, you can visit our Farmers Market, located at the Dunster Community Hall, where you can purchase various items for lunch from our local vendors, including hamburgers, baked goods, and refreshments.

In addition, the Dunster School Society has offered to provide bag lunches for the folks going on the Long Forays on Saturday and Sunday, which can be purchased for $15.00. They will also be preparing a soup/chili and sandwich lunch for folks on the Sunday workshop for a cost of $15.00. **These options are available for purchase on the Tickets page of this website.

What if the tickets are all sold out? Am I out of luck?

No. You can also come and hang out with us, check out the festival and chat about mushrooms. There will be

vendors and displays or attend the evening presentations you are welcome to come over! If you would just like to partake in the gala mushroom dinner, tickets will be available separately!

Oh, and email us to get yourself put on the wait list.

What is special about this festival and why should I come?

This is the FIRST mushroom festival held in the Robson Valley! This festival was created out of the recognition that many people have a fascination with mushrooms but only a select few (if any) that they feel confident to identify and eat., and so could benefit greatly from expanding their knowledge on local mushrooms.

Attending this festival is an opportunity to learn “hands on” from experts in the field of mycology by hanging out with and learning from "mushroom folks”. Learning about the diversity of mushrooms and fungi that are growing in our own "back yard” could go a long way to expanding your personal knowledge as well providing a sense of food security and resilience. It is also a form of emergency preparedness to learn which mushrooms are safe and not safe to eat "in a pinch". In addition, it will provide a greater awareness to residents of the natural bounty that surrounds us in the Dunster area and will encourage you to get out and explore in nature, which promote outdoor living and mental wellness!

We will be collecting on private and public land and have also obtained permits from BC Parks for Mount Robson, Jackman Flats, and the Ancient Forest. We will not only be learning about mushrooms as we collect, we will also be documenting and cataloguing our finds with the iNaturalist app, so the information we gather will contribute to scientific knowledge and will be used as baseline data for species found in the area in 2024 . Specific or rare finds may even be sampled and DNA typed and submitted to the provincial data bank!