When a
strapping lad turned up to the waxcap foray in a pink tutu and fairy wings, I
knew our marketing strategy had worked.
The second
Wales Fungus Day (now part of UK Fungus Day) held at the National Botanic
Garden of Wales attracted a motley crew of young and old dressed as fairies and
elves, no doubt attracted by the offer of free entry as by the chance to dress
up for fun.
Despite
persistent rain, 360 people turned up for an event packed day. The first walk
augered well – over 40 people joined David Mitchel (pictured above) for a Wonderful World of
Waxcaps walk, which not only entertained but uncovered several new fungi
records for the site. Other walks by Ray Woods (The Importance of Fungi) and
Pat O’Reilly (Woodland Fungi) drew similar crowds whilst Sue Parker and Richard
Culleton indoor cookery demonstration and Pat O’Reilly’s The Amazing World of
Fungi talk, drew around 60 people each.
Under the
cover of the world’s largest single-span glasshouse, visitors to the BMS’s From
Another Kingdom exhibition also got the chance to make their own woodturned
fungus, talk to fungi-inspired artists and gaze down microscopes at the
micro-world of fungi.
There was also a photographic exhibition of Botanic Garden
fungi, lots of family activities, a demonstration of using Ispot and a special
storytelling and music performance by Cheryl Beer, based on a new work of hers,
The Tethered Fairy Ring, which was inspired by last year’s Wales Fungus Day.
This, and a specially made fairy model village, provided the inspiration for
the fairy theme, and the day was rounded off by Bruce Langridge with advice,
gained from Welsh folklore, of how to escape from a fairy ring.
Bruce
Langridge
bruce.langridge@gardenofwales.org.uk
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