Fungi Feastival 2024: A month of delicious (and educational!) events

Posted on 12 June, 2024

Fungi: mushrooms and truffles, oh my!

Last year saw a new (extremely delicious) festival established on the stunning South Coast – and after a very successful first year, the Fungi Feastival is back for 2024 with a full month of workshops, decadent dinners and events across 21 June to 21 July.

With over 15 restaurants, cafes and makers offering fungi-themed dinners, cooking classes, menu items and take-home goodies, foodies can delight in a culinary tour of the coast, with offerings like truffle and fungi dinners, classes in cooking mushrooms with Asian flavours, truffle hunts and locally-made truffle cheese for purchase.

Created by three passionate fungi fans to bring together the two sides to this fascinating organism – the fact that fungi is one of our most exciting sustainable solutions for the future and the fact that it’s, well, delicious – the Fungi Feastival offers Canberrans an educational and delicious excuse for a winter weekend somewhere warm(er).

Fiona Kotvojs, Annette Kennewell and Josh Whitworth are those three fungi fans, brought together by a shared respect and fascination for all things fungi.

“We’re all passionate about the science of fungi,” explains Fiona, a cattle and truffle farmer who lives between Bega and Narooma. “For me, it’s about recognising how fungi will fit into the future of our agriculture. I got involved in fungi originally, because we have a truffle farm and the more I learnt, the more addictive it became to learn, because they’re just amazing.”

Those who want to learn more themselves can do so at a range of mushroom-growing workshops, talks, ecology walks and how-to classes.

Of course, Fiona also acknowledges the role of fungi in making food completely delicious, saying that the truffle degustation at The Oaks Ranch [in Broulee] last year was “absolutely stunning”.

“It just blew your mind – and I try truffle whenever I am at a restaurant with truffle on the menu,” says Fiona.

“Wheelers [in Merimbula] truffle dinner was fantastic, the combination of flavours exceptional, and at both of those truffle dinners, producers actually speak to explain what goes into producing a truffle, and the flavours and how you get the most out of it, in terms of eating it.”

“Then you have the Fungi Dinner at The Drom [in Central Tilba] and dinner at Il Passagio [in Bermagui], which both highlight the different types of fungi, so each course has a different type of mushroom or truffle – both were exceptional last year.”

With more than 30 businesses involved along the coast and events happening from Batemans Bay to the Victorian border, Fiona says it’s a true community effort, allowing a myriad of different businesses to get involved and flex their creative muscles.

“Sapphire Smokehouse does truffle smoked abalone and mussels and wonderful Central Tilba Bakery does the best pies you will ever eat and they have a really good, tasty mushroom pie.”

The Feastival has been planned so Canberrans can make the most of each weekend, with a spread of food, science, art, film, outdoor and kids’ events across the month.

Fiona also highlights that the world’s foremost fungi photographer, Stephen Axford, will be a special guest at this year’s Feastival, hosting photography workshops, walks, an exhibition of his work and a screening of his documentary Follow The Rain.

“Stay for a weekend or stay for a week,” says Fiona. “There is something for everyone and we have things on almost every day of the month.”

Photography supplied.