ABOUT
Since 2015, MycoSymbiotics has hosted the Mushroom and Arts festival in hopes to provide further education around all things mycology. It has gained traction in the community as a family-friendly connection to nature, education, and art. Attended by entrepreneurs in the field of mushrooms and mycology, local families, and local artists. The MycoSymbiotics festival is the first of its kind on the east coast. The festival is open and encouraged for all ages as we look to focus on education and ecological literacy. This multidimensional festival aims to provide something for everyone with our workshops for all stages, forays, live music, yoga. We look forward to meeting new people, connecting with nature, and discovering new ideas to share with our communities.
An Alternative Economy at MycoFest 2025:
A Call to Co-Create the Future
🌀 How You Can Participate 🌀
Post what you have or need on the Gift Board!
Bring what you want to give away!
Challenge yourself with new conversations, build new relationships.
Shared Values & Agreements
At MycoFest 11, we’re cultivating a space rooted in trust, reciprocity, and community connection by inviting an Alternative Economy to emerge and take shape throughout the festival. Even if you don’t actively participate, we ask that you understand and respect what’s happening around you. When you enter the Sacred Space, you agree to uphold the following shared values:
1. No Obligation, No Expectation
You’re never required to participate in gifting or exchanging. In a gift economy, there is no expectation to receive, but in a barter economy, there is.
2. Transparency
Be clear about what you’re offering and what (if anything) you’re seeking in return. Open communication is key.
3. Inclusivity
Everyone is welcome to participate, regardless of what they bring. Offer your skills, stories, time, or presence, and be open to welcoming others’. Take the stance of ‘value takes many forms.’
4. Community Over Commerce
This is not a market - it's a living example of a trust-based economy. Let’s prioritize connection over consumption.
Inspired by William Padilla-Brown’s mentors, we’re conceptualizing an Alternative Economy at MycoFest grounded in gifting, bartering, mutual aid, and shared values.
How It Looks In Real Time
🌱 Sacred Space: An open tent area where attendees will be able to interact alternative economy practices. In this alternative economy, there will be a shared ceremonial space, the gifting board, and an art gallery.
🌱 Gifting Board: Within the alternative economy, lies a unique but distinct concept: Gifting. On this gifting board, you get to build connections, gift a new friend with something they need, or receive what it is that you need out of love.
🌱 Community Conversations: A discussion tent moderated by community leaders, in dialogue on gift economies, trust, and solidarity.
🌱 Vendor Participation: Makers, growers, artists, and healers in the Vendor Village can opt into the gift economy vision, marked with a shared symbol for all MycoFest attendees to know.
The Grounds : Rhoneymeade
This year we’re nestled into the lovely Rhoneymeade Arboretum & Sculpture Garden in Centre Hall, PA just minutes outside of State College, PA. Engulf yourself in the beauty of nature and mushrooms!
Rhoneymeade is an intimate garden where a blossoming arboretum that nurtures a variety of sculptures. Surrounded by acres of preserved farm, field, and woodland, Rhoneymeade Arboretum & Sculpture Garden lies just outside state college, straddling a high north and south ridge in the Happy valley between Nittany and Tussey Mountains.
The labyrinth is a single path or unicursal tool for personal, psychological and spiritual transformation. There's only one way in, and one way out.
The Sculpture Garden is full of many pieces made from various materials such as bronze, marble, wood, and iron. The material juxtaposes the organic shapes of plant life and also harmonizes quite beautifully.