Fungi Town 2025

26/09/2025

🍄 Just 7 Days to Go: Fungi Town 2025 Is Almost Here! 🍄
The countdown is on… only one week until Hay-on-Wye transforms into the magical, mushroom-filled world of Fungi Town! 🌟

Get ready for a weekend of:

🌱 Guided mushroom forays with expert mycologists

🎨 Fungi-inspired art workshops and window displays

🍽️ Mushroom feasts, cocktails, and pickling sessions

🧪 Science talks, family activities, and quirky surprises

Whether you’re a curious beginner or a seasoned spore hunter, there’s something for everyone. Bring your friends, family, or just your sense of wonder—and step into a town that’s gone completely fungal!

📅 Dates: 3–5 October 2025
📍 Location: Hay Castle Trust & across Hay-on-Wye
🎟️ Tickets & info:

💬 Tell us in the comments: Which Fungi Town event are you most excited to try?

Join Fungi Town 2025 in Hay on Wye for films, talks, exhibitions, and fungi-themed activities from October 3-5, 2025.

26/09/2025

🎤Talks at Fungi Town

🍄Spores and Stories
How did you get into this?
An informal discussion with emerging mycologists, artists and fungi folk, tracing the unusual and often winding paths people take into the world of fungi. Presented by The Culturing Dish.
FREE BUT TICKETED - CLICK HERE
Oct 3, 2025 Clore Learning Space

🍄Discover the Magic of Mushrooms
Join Ali McKernan - the FUNgi Guy - for a family introduction to the extraordinary world of mushrooms and toadstools

BOOK TICKETS ON HAY CASTLE WEBSITE
Oct 4, 2025 Hay Castle Learning Space

🍄Fungus Among Us
From fungi leather to packaging, discover how scientists and designers are working with nature’s secret engineers to tackle real world problems, with Dr. Peter Wellham (Really Clever Co.) and Adam Davies (Ty Syml)

BOOK TICKETS ON HAY CASTLE WEBSITE
Oct 4, 2025 Hay Castle

🍄Why Fungi Matter
Dive into the past, present and future of nature’s forgotten kingdom with Professor Katie Field from Sheffield University

BOOK TICKETS ON HAY CASTLE WEBSITE
Oct 4, 2025 Hay Castle Learning Space

🍄Mushrooms and Mental Health
A fascinating discussion between clinical psychiatrist and leading expert Dr Ben Sessa and local author Nina Lyon about the science of mushrooms, and their use in treating issues such as addiction, depression and PTSD.

SOLD OUT
Oct 4, 2025 The Old Electric Shop

🍄Can I Eat It?
Hear Marlow Renton of Wild Food UK describe and introduce wild edible fungi and answer your questions.

FREE BUT TICKETED - CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS
Oct 5, 2025 The Globe

https://www.fungitown.org.uk/talks

26/09/2025

🎬Mushroom Movies at Fungi Town

🍄From chicken shed to mushroom farm: ReFarm
A short film telling the incredible story of a five-year mission to convert former Norfolk chicken sheds into a mushroom farm. Using less water, space, and minimal resources, this breakthrough method could reshape the future of food production.
FREE
Oct 3, 2025 – Oct 4, 2025 Richard Booth Room

🍄Fungi: Web of Life
Narrated by Björk, Fungi: Web of Life follows biologist Dr. Merlin Sheldrake into the hidden world beneath our feet. From ancient rainforests to stunning time-lapse footage, discover how fungi connect all life on Earth - and may hold the key to our future.

BUY TICKETS AT RICHARD BOOTH’S CINEMA
Oct 3, 2025 Richard Booth's Cinema

🍄Follow the Rain
UK Premier of film featuring fungi experts Stephen Axford and Catherine Marciniak on a stunning journey through Australia’s wild landscapes. With breathtaking imagery and a soundtrack of symphonic proportions, Follow the Rain is a sensory experience that unearths the foundation of life down under.

Tickets from Hay Castle
Screening to be hosted by Hay Castle.
Oct 4, 2025 Hay Castle Learning Space

https://www.fungitown.org.uk/films

26/09/2025

As Hay is transformed into the UK’s first ever Fungi Town local shops will be dressing for the occasion. Take a tour of the town’s shop windows and choose your favourite display.

Shops involved include: Addymans Books - Baka Bakery - Bartrums - Dugans - Gay-on-Wye - Golesworthys - Hay-on_wye Booksellers - Bohemian Folk - Llewellyn & Co. - Londis - Mostly Maps - North Books - Oil & Oak

As Hay is transformed into the UK’s first ever Fungi Town local shops will be dressing for the occasion.  Take a tour of the town’s shop windows and choose your favourite display.

04/09/2025

🔍 Planning Your Visit: Everything You Need to Know

Fungi Town is free to enter, with some events ticketed.
https://www.fungitown.org.uk/programme

Accessibility highlights:
In Hay Castle there is wheelchair lift access to all floors (except cellar), accessible toilets on ground and first floor.

Parking and charging options at Oxford Road Car Park in Hay-on-Wye; one accessible bay.

Travel tip: Hay-on-Wye is a charming border town, rich in bookshops and nestled in the Brecon Beacons. Plan a stay and turn your fungal day-trip into a mini-escape.

https://www.fungitown.org.uk/about

04/09/2025

🎨 Art, Workshops & Window Magic at Fungi Town! 🎨

Fungi Town isn’t just about mushrooms—it’s about creativity and community:

Window Displays – Wander the streets and admire fungus-themed window art as shops transform into fungal wonderlands.

Mushroom Printing Workshop – Learn lino cutting and create prints using mushroom-made inks with Yuli Gates.
https://www.haycastletrust.org/p-6234-fungi-town-introduction-to-lino-printmaking-with-mushroom-inks.aspx

Make a Mushroom Patch/Pennant – Dive into fabric collage and print your own mushroom patch or pennant with Oil & Oak
https://oilandoak.co.uk/workshops/

Let’s turn fungal fascination into art—something memorable for paws, walls, and young hands!
https://www.fungitown.org.uk/activities

Fungi Town: Introduction to Lino Printmaking with Mushroom Inks

04/09/2025

🍽️ Fungi-feasting Awaits at Fungi Town! 🍽️

Calling all fungiphiles: expect mushroom-themed delights all weekend! At Hay Castle Cafe, indulge in gourmet mushroom meals. Enjoy fungi-infused cocktails at Hay Distillery Mushroom Cocktail Hour. Plus, don’t miss mushroom pickling workshops and “Can I Eat It?” sessions at The Globe at Hay. It’s a spore-lovers dream come true.

https://www.fungitown.org.uk/food

04/09/2025

🍄What’s On at Fungi Town? Let’s Explore!🍄

From mushroom hunts to cocktail hours, here’s a glimpse of what’s in store:

Fungi Town Foray – A guided mushroom hunt through the hills with the “mushroom tickler” Dan Ryan. Bring a basket, get curious—but it’s observational, not for eating.
https://www.fungitown.org.uk/programme/fungi-town-foray

Mushroom Caricatures – Meet Monsieur Champignon and become your favourite fungus—cartoon style!
https://www.fungitown.org.uk/programme/mushroom-caricatures

Science Corner – Explore your compost under the microscope with Hay Regenerative Soils and dive into the soil food web.
https://www.fungitown.org.uk/programme/fungal-rummage-zccsl

Mushrooms & Mental Health – A talk on fungi’s role in treating addiction, depression, and PTSD with Dr Ben Sessa and Nina Lyon.
https://www.fungitown.org.uk/programme/mushrooms-and-mental-health

Stay tuned as we reveal more events—there’s something for every fungi fan!
https://www.fungitown.org.uk/programme

Join seasoned guide, Head of Nature at The Lost Gardens of Heligan, and self-declared ‘mushroom tickler’ Dan Ryan, for a family-friendly fungi hunt through the hills above Hay. Whether you’re a curious beginner or experienced mycologist, all are welcome. Dress for the weather, wear sturdy boot...

04/09/2025

🌟 Hay-on-Wye Becomes Fungi Town! 🌟

Imagine a town-wide fungal takeover—window displays, mushroom-themed eats, art, science, and so much more. Fungi Town is the first event of its kind in the UK, bringing together experts, artists, growers, and fungi-lovers for a creative, curious weekend.

Whether you’re a seasoned mycophile or just curious, prepare for an unforgettable spore-filled adventure!
https://www.fungitown.org.uk/about

04/09/2025

🍄 Get Ready for Fungi Town! 🍄

Mark your calendars for 3–5 October 2025! Hay-on-Wye transforms into Fungi Town for a fantastical, family-friendly celebration of mushrooms, lichens, moulds—and yeast too! Expect films, talks, workshops, exhibitions, feasts and more, hosted across Hay Castle Trust and other local venues.

Tag friends and start planning your spore-filled weekend!
https://www.fungitown.org.uk/