I've been the biggest fanboy of Solar Punk Farms for a long time.
Solar Punk Farms is a climate hub focused on bioregional regeneration. They engage the queer community, youth, and all others who want to help create a more ecologically-minded civilization. Through science, art, collaboration and revelry, they aim to make the sustainable revolution seem irresistible by inviting others to experience what a life based on pro-climate values looks, smells, tastes and feels like. I love the way they weave queerness with regenerating the land, showing how a sustainable way of life is not only possible but also fun, sexy, and conducive to a healthy and happy life.
So you can imagine how delighted I was to get the opportunity to work with them to produce and host the very first Russian River Fungi Fest. As part of the core planning team, my role was to lead all marketing and PR, handle media outreach, and assist with communications. It was extra fab to attend in person to assist with all the event logistics and moderate speaker sessions over the weekend.
I secured 5 feature stories in leading media outlets, 2 radio segment interviews and subsequent coverage and many mentions across many of the leading local media newsletters and voices. On the offline side, we had posters distributed across many businesses and stores that were also hosting mushroom-themed satellite events.
We had over 1,700+ people show up over the two days. From an attendee survey, we saw that ~90% plan to return to next year's festival, and the average score was 8.5 (out of 10). 97% of our vendors want to return next year, with estimated total vendor sales of over $47k. Total estimated sales in the local community over the weekend were over $100k. For a first-year event, these are pretty amazing metrics, right?
The qualitative metric I was most proud of was seeing the passion and excitement from everyone who attended, and the number of people who said that this was one of the best events they could remember in Guerneville for a long time.
“Shane is a savvy strategist, creative problem solver, and kind/calm executor. The full package. We were so lucky to find him for our Solar Punk Farms event team, where he led marketing and communication for our biggest event series of the year. Can’t wait to work with him again.”
Reflection
I don't think I was mentally prepared for how much the community in Sonoma County love their mushrooms. I knew, but didn't really know until I was there in person and got to witness the passion and joy of everyone who showed up over the two days. With everything happening in the US right now, Fungi Fest felt like a beautiful collective exhale.
The weekend was a reminder that fungi and communities aren't so different. They both thrive through invisible networks of care, built underground, long before anyone shows up to the party (and boy, do they love to party). The mycelium was doing this work long before we knew we needed it too.