Twenty-five years is a long time when you
’re part of a small team planning a big event but the Mushroom
Mardi Gras folks have hung in there and made a difference.
Twenty-five years is a long time when you’re part of a small team planning a big event but the Mushroom Mardi Gras folks have hung in there and made a difference.
Started – and continued – by former fire chief Brad Spencer, the executive team has, for years, also included Steve Silveira and Tilly Mayeda. They are the first to admit that the festival would not happen without a lengthy list of reliable, returning helpers.
Twenty-five years of festivals have offered the thousands of visitors first rate music, food and drink, booths of cuddly reptiles, booths of crafts, climbing walls and Water Wars. Twenty-five Mardi Gras have also given more than $500,000 to local high school students going on to college.
The 2004 scholarships, of $1,000 each, go to 10 Live Oak seniors and one “helping scholarship” for a Central High student.
Unlike past years, this year’s Mardi Gras will be largely staffed by paid help from nonprofit groups, replacing the volunteers in many positions. Mayeda explained that the committee wanted to broaden the help the community gets from the festival and, as a result, nonprofits from Morgan Hill (such as Live Oak Band Boosters) and elsewhere will earn money for such jobs as running the soda booth for Mardi Gras.
Because the original harvest festival that Spencer founded to beef up the fire department budget was moved from fall to spring, the weather – except for a rainy year or two – tends to be warm, sunny and otherwise glorious.
So, pack up the kids and a few grandparents and trundle down to Community Park this weekend. Shuttles are free and plentiful from parking lots in the area. (Have a care not to leave your vehicle in a commercial parking lot – Nob Hill and Tennant Station need the space for their regular customers.)
Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. $10 adults, $5 kids. No dogs; no outside food (this is where MMG earns money for scholarships and to pay the nonprofit workers). The Times published a special section in Tuesday’s edition with the music schedule, lists of food and craft vendors and details about the bands: Greg Kihn, Gin Blossoms, Sage, Big Fun and P.T. and the Cruzers.
Details: www.mhmushroommardigras.com or 408-778-1786.
