We are excited to continue the Utah Fungi Festival in 2023! Over 400 people attended the inaugural event in 2022, and we want the festival to continue to thrive. We need your help!

If you want to be part of a new and exciting community-based event, please complete the application below and tell us about yourself.

UFF_logo_color 1080x1080

Utah Fungi Festival

Salt Lake City, UT

Sponsored by wholesun wellness

Events

Friday, May 13
7:00 p.m.

Opening Night

Psychedelic Medicine Screening and Panel

Mountain West Cider

Join researchers, mycologists, and activists to learn about the world of psychedelic medicine in an intimate panel discussion and screening.

Sponsored by Alita Bioscience
Featured Sponsor

**Must be 21 years or older to attend**

In this intimate and private event, you will learn from researchers, mycologists, and activists about the world of psychedelic medicine.

Join us for a screening of the documentary Psychedelia: The History and Science of Mystical Experience, followed by a panel discussion with experts appearing in the Utah Fungi Festival.

  • William Goss – Mycology Director of the California Psilocybin Decriminalization Initiative
  • Alan Rockefeller – Mushroom Identification Specialist, Biohacker, and Photographer
  • Seth Warner – Educator and Community Organizer with the San Francisco Psychedelic Society
  • Jme Bonfiglio – Owner, Founder, and Formulator at WholeSun Wellness, psilocybin researcher
  • Marc Donsky, Ph.D. – Mammoth Mountain Hemp
 
Alcohol will be available for purchase from Mountain West Cider.

Saturday, May 14

Main Conference

Mountain America Exposition Center

Join us for a full day of mushroom identification, cultivation, medicinal benefits, psilocybin, mycoremediation, and more. All ages welcome!

Join us for a full day of lectures on mushroom identification, cultivation, medicinal benefits, psilocybin, mycoremediation, and more. All ages are welcome!

Experts will share their experience and knowledge throughout the day:

  • Alan Rockefeller – Mushroom Identification Specialist
  • Jme Bonfiglio – WholeSun Wellness
  • William Goss – California Psilocybin Decriminalization Initiative
  • Marc Donsky, Ph.D. – Mammoth Mountain Hemp
  • Benjamin Lillibridge – Mālama Mushrooms, The Hawai’i Fungi Project
  • Seth Warner – San Francisco Psychedelic Society
  • Gabriela D’Elia – Fungal Diversity Survey
  • Tyler Hacking – Utah Mycological Society
  • Katie Lawson – Fungal Focus
  • Rikki Longino – Mobile Moon Co-Op
  • Reid Robison, MD, MBA – Cedar Psychiatry and Center for Change
  • Geoff Zahn, Ph.D. – Utah Valley University
  • John Michelotti – Catskill Fungi
  • Callen Christensen – Chaga Co-operative

Sunday, May 15

Outdoor Forays &
Closing Event

Meet with other fungi fanatics in the open air for workshops and a foray with experts in mushroom identification and harvesting.

Forays hosted by the Mushroom Society of Utah.

Utah Fungi Festival Closing Event
4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Mobile Moon Coop
2551 Hempstead St., Salt Lake City, UT 84119

In collaboration with the Mushroom Society of Utah and the Mobile Moon Coop

Main Conference Schedule

Marc Donsky, Ph.D.

Researcher, Mammoth Mountain Hemp, Colorado Mycological Society

By focusing on a few well-known and most researched medicinal mushrooms we will provide a brief introduction to the uses of; and the chemistry and the biochemistry responsible for their pharmacological properties. If time allows, we will present a brief history of medicinal mushroom use, as practiced in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and as Food as Medicine.

Marc Donsky began loving mushrooms early in life and has been growing mushrooms since 1976, when he cultured his first mushrooms from spore prints made from mushrooms collected in a cow field outside of Palenque, Mexico. He received a B.S. in Ethnobiology from the University of Arizona, Tucson, studying chemistry to understand plants. After a trip to Peru collecting plants for the Denver Botanical Gardens, Marc began his graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded an M.S. in Organic Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Comparative Biochemistry. He has spearheaded research into mushroom cultivation, mycoremediation, and medicinal mushroom analysis.

Gabriela D'Elia

Mushroom Society of Utah, Fungal Diversity Survey, and Moon Mushrooms

Fungal Diversity Survey (FunDiS) is North America’s non-profit organization that addresses a major gap in biodiversity conservation: fungi. FunDiS protects biodiversity by conserving fungi and their habitats by increasing knowledge and public awareness of their diversity and distribution, equipping and engaging community scientists, and partnering with land managers, conservationists, and scientists. FunDiS is dedicated to a world where the fungal kingdom is fully documented, understood, appreciated, and protected. Attend this presentation to learn about FunDiS, our local Utah community science initiative (Northern Utah Funga, a Mushroom Society of Utah project), and how you can get involved.

Gabriela D’Elia was born and raised in the mountains of Utah. Gabriela is Director of Fungal Diversity Survey (FunDiS), Vice President for Mushroom Society of Utah, and Project Leader for Northern Utah Funga FunDiS local project. She holds a B.A. in fungal ecology and has taught classes on macrofungi, fungal ecology, cultivation, mushroom medicine, and aspects of fungal philosophy. She is interested in how mycophiles can impact how fungi are understood and protected through community science organization. She also finds value in exploring fungi through observation, imagination, and symbolism.

Alan Rockefeller

Photographer, Biohacker, Mushroom Identification Specialist

Glowing fungi and Psilocybe are two of the most interesting groups of fungi, both of which are unusually diverse in Mexico. There are two types of glowing fungi – fluorescent, which converts ultraviolet light to visible light, and bioluminescent fungi, which make their own light in complete darkness.

DNA barcoding has revolutionized the study of wild mushrooms in the past 20 years and is possible to do at home with inexpensive equipment. This presentation will explain how to set up a home lab, analyze the data and give insights into what can be learned by studying DNA barcodes.

Alan Rockefeller is a photographer, computer hacker, biohacker and mushroom identification specialist who currently lives in Oakland, California. In 2001 he began his autonomous studies in the field of mycology, beginning with the collection of fungi in California. Each year since 2007, he has traveled to Mexico to collect mushrooms and has now photographed more than 1,000 species of fungi from Mexico. Based on phylogenetic and microscopic analysis, he has identified several species not described in the scientific literature.

Katie Lawson

Founder of Fungal Focus, Sustainable Farming Advocate

If we use nature as our template, it becomes intuitive to include fungi in our farming and gardening practices. First, we have to understand the roles that fungi play in keeping a forest self-sustaining. Then we can incorporate fungal-friendly methods into our agricultural practices. The goal is to work with fungi to reduce the environmental impacts of growing food while making life easier for farmers.

After finishing an environmental science degree in 2009, Katie began working on organic vegetable farms in 2011. Farming took her all over the country, including stops in Oregon, Maine, Georgia, and Utah. She began studying and cultivating mushrooms in 2016. While vegetable farming will always be her first love, her role in the sustainable food movement has evolved into something more fungal. Currently, she runs Fungal Focus which provides mushroom grow kits and mycology workshops and performs soil research. She enjoys working with local organizations and being a part of the Salt Lake community.

Callen Christensen

Researcher, Forager, Alaskan Chaga Co-operative

Unregulated overharvesting of Chaga  (Inonotus obliquus) can lead to negative environmental impact and extinction. In this presentation, you will learn about Chaga, its benefits, how a harvester’s co-op was formed in Alaska, and get an inside look at a research project artificially inoculating Birch trees with Chaga spores or mycelium using a proposed method to counteract overharvesting. You will also discover how community members are contributing to the research over a six-year period.

Callen Christensen is a founding member of the Chaga Co-operative, Alaska’s only foraging cooperative. With a cut-out-the-middleman approach to distributing Alaska’s wild foods, Callen and the co-op have provided jobs and educational opportunities to locals while making nutritious wild foods more accessible.

Tyler Hacking

Green Dreams Come True, Founder of the Utah Mycological Society and Mycology Club at Utah Valley University (UVU)

In 2019, I led a group of citizen scientists into the deserts of Capitol Reef National park to document the unique species found there to contribute data to the research conducted during the UVU-hosted Bioblitz project. Using software and standardized data collection protocols, we collected more data than had ever been collected for that area before. Using these same methods, anyone can contribute to scientific research. This workshop will focus on teaching you how to contribute to ongoing scientific research projects.

Fungi have played a critical role in human foods since, before recorded history, they ferment many foods we love to enjoy, such as breads, cheeses, chocolate, and all of the alcohols and vinegar on the earth. In this workshop, we will learn about the nutrition of different edible fungi, some of which can be found in Utah, what happens when you cook them and the history of fungi in the culinary world. As a chef and a biologist, I am extremely excited to present this workshop for Utah.

Over the last five years, I have been conducting research on fungi at Utah Valley University (UVU) under the mentorship of several research mentors on the interactions between Fungi, Plants and the chemistry of their habitats. Through this process, I have learned skills that enable me to research and articulate fascinating information about fungi and have applied them to commercial and industrial applications such as composting. In this presentation, we will discuss the applied sciences and biotechnological uses of fungi.

In the lab, Tyler studies the ecology, microbiology and geochemistry of agronomy, biotechnology and ethno/mycopharmacology in plants, fungi, and bacteria. He applies these sciences to industry as a consultant for agriculture businesses and teaches clients how to maintain healthy and productive soil using fungi to create sustainable, effective composts. He is also a fungal photographer, specialty nutrition chef and research scientist.  Tyler is the founder of both the Utah Mycological Society and the Mycology Club at Utah Valley University. He currently serves on the education committee for the Mycological Society of America.

Reid Robison, MD, MBA

Founder and Attending Psychiatrist of Cedar Psychiatry, Medical Director for Center for Change

This presentation will cover the neurochemical properties of psilocybin, including its proposed mechanism of action in the brain and how it enhances neuroplasticity and may accelerate the therapeutic process. We will also review the history behind the medicinal use of psilocybin and its potential clinical applications. Additionally, this talk will address mechanisms of change in therapy and how psychedelics, including psilocybin, might accelerate the process of healing and growth.

Reid Robison, MD, MBA, is a psychedelic psychiatrist, co-founder of Cedar Psychiatry, and Chief Medical Officer at Novamind. He has conducted over 200 clinical trials in psychiatry, including a pivotal ketamine study in 2010. Reid currently serves as principal investigator of the Utah site for Usona’s psilocybin for depression study, MindMed’s LSD for generalized anxiety study, and supervises and trains the psychedelic therapists across Cedar Psychiatry clinics and research sites. He also served as coordinating investigator for the MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) MDMA-assisted psychotherapy study for Eating Disorders. Reid was one of the first clinicians to give ketamine for psychiatric illness in Utah. He currently volunteers as medical support and a psychedelic therapist at Ayahuasca retreats abroad, and often provides medical safety consultations to shamans, therapists and researchers working in psychedelic medicine. You can hear him share his thoughts as co-host of the Psychedelic Therapy Frontiers Podcast.

Benjamin Lillibridge

Founder and Funguy of Mālama Mushrooms, Organic Agriculture Advocate

Hawai’i is one of the most isolated places globally, creating rich and unique biodiversity among the native ecosystems. With up to 160 mushrooms found only on the Hawaiian islands (six of which appear on the endangered species list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)), there is no shortage of excitement in diving into the fungi world on the Hawaiian Islands. Join Benjamin Lillibridge, founder of the Hawaii Fungi Project, as he discusses the community science initiative dedicated to studying and preserving the rare fungi of Hawai’i.

Rooted on Hawai’i Island, Benjamin is the founder & funguy of The Hawaii Fungi Project & Mālama Mushrooms. Mālama is the Hawaiian word for “protect, preserve, and nurture.” This serves as the standard for all the work that he does from creating easy-to-use healthy mushroom products for his community and to preserving the rare native mushrooms of Hawai’i. www.malamamushrooms.com

William Goss

Mycology Director, California Psilocybin Decriminalization Initiative

Deep dive into the emerging world of bio-fabrication. You will learn how cutting-edge applications of myco materials and other new biology-based technologies are disrupting traditional packaging, leather, plastic, dye, and construction industries.

William Goss has studied, researched, foraged, and cultivated fungi for over 13 years. He graduated from UC Davis with a degree in plant genetics, and a minor in mycology. William was grower supervisor and the water Systems operator for Monterey Mushrooms at the continent’s largest organic mushroom farm. William joined the Decriminalize California board of directors in April 2019 and started working for the campaign full-time in September 2019.

Ryan Thomas

Salty Grows

Learn about the world of low-tech mushroom cultivation and how easy it can be at your very own home with Ryan Thomas. This class will review the basics of understanding mushrooms, various cultivation methods, how to choose the right location, and the different varieties you can grow. Low-tech mushroom cultivation is directed more towards outdoor techniques, but we will also talk about easy methods that people can utilize in smaller indoor spaces.

Ryan Thomas is an educator, cultivator, and mushroom hobbyist who was born and raised on a farm in Kamas, Utah where they grew alfalfa, and raspberries and raised cattle until he eventually moved to Salt Lake City in 2008. Ryan has always had a love for nature resulting in his forever path to plants and eventually fungi. Over the last couple of years, he has taught classes on outdoor and low-tech mushroom cultivation both online and in various states across the country. One of his biggest passions is consulting growers and showing them that mushroom cultivation is something that anybody can do. You can find him foraging in the woods, traveling around the world, or in his shop sterilizing grain to supply local shops, online stores, commercial cultivators and hobby growers.

Seth Warner

Educator, Community Organizer, San Francisco Psychedelic Society

Seth Warner is an educator and community organizer living in the Bay Area where he works to build the San Francisco Psychedelic Society alongside an amazing team. This past July the Psychedelic Society has helped to decriminalize entheogenic plants and fungi. Additionally, he has been teaching about fungi for the past three years and today he regularly teaches psychoactive mushroom cultivation classes with the Psychedelic Society under the name MycoRising.

Geoff Zahn, Ph.D.

Utah Valley University

The majority of fungi, both in diversity and abundance, remain invisible to us but are incredibly important. Let’s take a look at the diversity of symbiotic fungi around the world and get a glimpse of the roles they play in ecosystem health.

Geoff is currently an Assistant Professor in the biology department at Utah Valley University. He received a BS in biology at Missouri State University and a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Arkansas. His research focuses on the dispersal and ecology of symbiotic fungi. From the upper atmosphere to deep coral reefs to inside the leaves of endangered plants, fungi are everywhere. His lab is working to understand what roles they are playing in these systems and how to harness them to meet specific goals.

Decriminalize Nature SLC

Presented by Matthew Butler and Valerie Ahanonu

Decriminalize Nature was founded with the basic goal of advancing the values of love and compassion as revealed and demonstrated by our plant and fungi allies. We advocate for safe and equitable access, non-commodification of the entheogenic plants and fungi, ceremony-based community containers, abundance and cooperation, decentralization, transparency, and open-source information. One of the national board’s most important roles has been to monitor the emergence of money and corporate power into the plant medicine conversation and to do all we can to mitigate the negative impacts of profiteering and commodification of our entheogenic allies.

DN believes that any and all policies that seek to decriminalize/legalize entheogenic plants or fungi for any use–including medical, research, or product development or testing–must include decriminalization language. This language must allow equitable access to the general public and must be included in any language proposed for any local, state, or federal decriminalization effort, whether through a legislative or ballot measure process. 

John Michelotti

Founder and Mycologist, Catskill Fungi

Fungi have the solutions to many of the harmful processes humans have created. Not only can fungi break down pollutants, but they can replace technologies that are harming the planet with sustainable solutions that we can grow from our waste. We are growing a healthier world by pairing with ancient methods that mycelium demonstrates. Let’s explore what technologies are being created, why they are important, who is working on them, and the time frame before they are commonly accessible.

John Michelotti is the founder of Catskill Fungi, which empowers people with fungi through outdoor educational classes, cultivation courses, mushroom art, and mushroom health extracts.  John is a former President of the Mid-Hudson Mycological Association (MHMA). He serves as Poison Control Consultant for the North American Mycological Association and is an instructor for Wild Mushroom Food Safety Certification courses in NY. He was chosen by the Catskill Center as a “Steward of the Catskills” for his contribution to the environment. His goal is to educate and inspire people to pair with fungi to improve the environment, their health, and their communities. 

Tea Lounge - The Mobile Moon Co-Op

Join The Mobile Moon Co-op at any time throughout the duration of the festival. We will offer fungally infused tea, handmade products, and a cozy space to relax and myceliate in our lovingly-curated tea lounge. 30% of our proceeds go directly to local solidarity efforts. This month we are supporting our friend, an Indigenous activist in need of support with medical bills.

All of our teas are made by hand with high-quality ingredients. 

Chaga Chai

Cordyceps Golden Milk

Reishi Hot Chocolate

Turkey Tail Coffee

Zines, teas, tinctures, face masks, bath salts, smoking blends, laundry soap, infused honey, and soaps

*All hand-crafted by local community members. 

Prices range from $5-40

The Founder:

Rikki Longino (They/them) is a gardener, seed-keeper, community organizer, and mycelial advocate based in the Wasatch Valley. Their love of fungi began as a child growing up in the temperate rainforest of Olympia, Washington. As an adult, Rikki has traveled to mycological gatherings, such as The New Moon Mycology Summit, MycoSymbiotics, and The Midwest Women’s Herbal Gathering to present or vend. They are currently in the process of co-creating a mycology-inspired tarot deck called Fruiting Bodies. Rikki works at the Salt Lake City Public Library running a seed library and community garden. They also collaborate with The Mobile Moon Co-op, a femme and queer-led collective herb farm and apothecary.

Other members of the Co-Op:

Tia Mitsinikos

Daley Yoshimura

Laura Goedenick

Ashley Finley

Yasi Shaker

Caro Nilsson

KB Hill

About Us

OUR FOUNDER

Jme Bonfiglio is an educator, researcher, community builder, formulator, and the founder of WholeSun Wellness and the Utah Fungi Festival. She lectures to audiences worldwide on the benefits of medicinal mushrooms and to advocate for higher standards in mushroom cultivation and processing. She frequently collaborates with international partners to create a sustainable, empowering place for women in the industry.

For years Jme worked with established leaders in the mycology field. Seeing an opportunity to improve the quality and impact of medicinal mushrooms, Jme founded WholeSun Wellness in 2017. The company provides clinically-potent mushroom extracts with verifiable therapeutic levels of naturally-occurring medicinal compounds to consumers, retailers, and clinicians. Since its inception, WholeSun Wellness has become the raw bulk supplier for customers in 192 countries and driven new global standards for quality assurance testing. She is leveraging her partnerships with small farmers and processors to build the largest vertically-integrated medicinal mushroom operation in North America. Upon completion, the operation will create a reliable domestic supply of quality mushroom products while supporting family-owned and run businesses. Her vision is an interconnected, sustainable, and mutually-supportive network.

Jme also brings people together with the founding of the Utah Fungi Festival. The festival will attract speakers, researchers, and activists from across the country for three days of exploring and celebrating fungi. 

Using her education and her passion, Jme has crafted dozens of custom mushroom blends. Many can be found in conventional and holistic medical clinics across the United States. She is currently creating new therapeutic formulas with psilocybin and laying the groundwork for psilocybin production.

As a researcher, Jme has been developing a mycological solution to single-use plastic, which she hopes will encourage complete-circle recycling. She has also been working to create sustainable building materials using mushroom biomass. 

Jme has appeared at clinical conferences around the world. She has been a speaker at the World Fungi Conference 2019, Snowbrush Herbal Festival 2019, Utah Clean Air 2019, BotanicWise Women’s Herbal Gathering, Microdose Conference 2021, and the International Conference on Psychedelic Pharmacology and Applications 2022. She is a frequent podcast and radio guest speaking on the ancient wisdom of fungi, psilocybin, and the new standards of farming and processing mushrooms.

Our Mission

We believe in the power of fungi to contribute to the health of the planet and all beings that live here. To promote the use of mushrooms as sustainable resources, we introduce leaders, citizens, and business owners to fungi’s diverse ability to impact ecosystem remediation, permaculture, culinary practices, and personal health. By providing education from expert speakers and educators, we work to inspire environmental stewardship using the ancient wisdom of fungi.

Our Vision

We want to change the way the world thinks about mushrooms. Through fungi education with expert speakers, we aim to bring Utahns closer to their local environment and to advocate for fungi as sustainable resources for our personal and planetary health.

Why Mushrooms?

Mushrooms play a massive role in natural environments such as decomposing dead matter and partnering with plants for mutual benefit. Humans have a long history with these ecological giants, with evidence of consumption tracing back to the Upper Paleolithic Period between 18,000 and 12,000 years ago.​

They’re already used as medicine, building materials, and biodegradable packaging. Mycological research shows mushrooms have versatile applications, grow quickly, and create no carbon emissions or waste. Such a low-impact resource will be crucial in our ability to adapt to ongoing climate change. 

Why Utah?

We know that Utahns love their outdoors and want to connect them even more to their passions. But isn’t Utah too dry for mushrooms? Not at all! A quick drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon might reveal a cluster of Oyster mushrooms or a foray in the Uintas might include some Morels. Every ecosystem needs decomposers and, even in Utah, fungi are there to do the job.

Utah is also home to 660 species of bees — that’s one out of every four species endemic to the U.S. and fungi play a massive role in sustaining bee diversity and populations. Research already shows that mushroom mycelium helps bees fight diseases that contribute to colony collapse. Our state has the potential to make a massive impact on bee conservation.