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Our Purpose
Rad Myco is a biennial, family-friendly, and inclusive celebration of the human-fungal relationship. Over four days, fungi-friends, artists, and earth stewards of all stripes come together to take part in mushroom hunts, art shows, outdoor fungal installations, and dozens of workshops on topics ranging from fungal ecology and mushroom cultivation, to medicine making and mitigating pollution via mycoremediation – all while meeting hundreds of like-minded people from around the world.
We gather to learn from fungi, celebrate their many gifts, get silly, dance, rejoice with new and old friends, and co-create a modern mycoculture that is rooted, connected, and concerned with the well being of all the world's inhabitants.
We gather to learn from fungi, celebrate their many gifts, get silly, dance, rejoice with new and old friends, and co-create a modern mycoculture that is rooted, connected, and concerned with the well being of all the world's inhabitants.
A History of Celebrating Fungi
We love putting on Rad Myco. By providing space for the inspiring arts and sciences of mycology to intersect with a range of cultural and environmental topics, each gathering brings new layers to the modern mycoculture movement.
Founded in 2011, our gathering began as a reflection of a booklet (zine) entitled Radical Mycology, which had been written by Peter McCoy two years prior. Blending various eclectic topics with mycology, the small text presented the idea that fungi were not only interesting, but vitally important for all life. The first gathering was called the Radical Mycology Convergence (RMC) and was initially intended to be an intimate event. As word spread, however, it quickly grew into a gathering of hundreds of people from around the world!
Over the following 10 years, four more RMCs were held in Washington (2012), Illinois (2014), New York (2016), and Oregon (2018), with each incarnation bringing a new suite of teachers, attendees, and insights. Though touring the event around the country helped build a strong community of Radical Mycologists, the logistics of planning the event in a new location each time proved to take energy away from curating the best event possible. So the sixth gathering in 2022 saw the RMC hosted at the same consecutive location, enabling us to enrich the experience for all involved.
We are thrilled to return to our lovely host farm for 2024 and to continue to deepen our connection to its land and the people who join us there as we create our most engaging gathering to date.
This year we are also excited to announce the event’s new name, Rad Myco!
Tending the Mycoculture
Ideas, people, and fungi found on the fringe will always be seen as outsiders by some. While we embrace the uniqueness of Rad Myco and our approach to working with fungi, we do so primarily to uplift this so-often overlooked branch on the Tree of Life and to show just how multi-faceted and inspiring these species are.
Underlying our approach is an emphasis on enhancing quality of life for all of the world's inhabitants, just as the fungi do so well. Likewise, our ethos is largely influenced by the belief that all beings have inherent value and a deeply-embedded interdependence.
We value fungi not for what humans can take from them, but for what we can learn from them.
At the heart of Rad Myco there has always been an intention to build a mycelial network of like-minded fungi advocates through the sharing of the event’s rarely-encountered topics. As such, our approach is founded in a design process that is DIY-inspired and an intent that is grassroots-promoting. The gathering's site is rural and workshops take place outdoors (weather permitting) or in rustic spaces – settings that emphasize the natural beauty that fungi offer.
Likewise, the unifying and far-reaching topics covered at Rad Myco draw together people of all backgrounds, political stances, and lifestyles. We encourage all participants to come to the gathering with an open mind and an excitement to learn from this variety of perspectives and to discover new ways of working with and appreciating fungi. Though not a traditional event in some senses, we strive to make the entire gathering an inspiring space for learning new information, having new experiences, and making new friends.
Much of Rad Myco emphasizes community building, sustainable lifestyle practices, and personal empowerment via the unique practices of mycology. This is a distinct shift from the traditional approach of working with mushrooms – which often emphasizes identification, toxicology, and consumption – toward an emphasis on applying mycology to improve the health of the planet.
We see all of this as a natural evolution from the foundations laid by the mycologists of the last two centuries: a step from theory into practice and from domination toward allyship with the Fungal Queendom. We warmly invite anyone interested in participating in Rad Myco to come, learn, help out, or teach for we are the extreme, or radical, or leading edge of the rapidly expanding mycoculture of history, which is now myceliating the world!
Our Values
Advance the Mycoculture
Rad Myco promotes the growth of mycology – from its traditional and citizen science research base, to its intersections across the arts, history, and cultures. We see the current state of mycology as the starting place of an unexplored aspect of the human endeavor and encourage an open mind for engaging with all that mycology offers, so that it most fully flourishes.
Grow A Healthy Community
All are welcome and invited to take part in discussing the next era of the human-fungi relationship. Rad Myco encourages the growth of personal relationships with mycology, as well as the unmediated expression of that unique perspective.
Learn From the Fungi
Rad Myco promotes embodying the many lessons found in the unique traits and roles of fungi. Patterns of resilience, co-operation, self-reliance, stewardship, and healing are found in all aspects of mycology, and are infused throughout the event. We encourage everyone to seek new means for mirroring these traits in their lives and in their exchanges with others and the environment.
Brown Bottle Farm
BBF is located in the small farming community of Mulino, Oregon, approximately 25 miles south of Portland. A diversified and certified naturally grown vegetable and mushroom farm, BBF is entering its eight season to provide non-GMO, open pollinated, and heirloom produce, mushrooms, and herbs to farmer’s markets and restaurants in the surrounding area. Farm owners Anna and Ryan have over 12 years of experience in herbalism, farming, and mycology and are the primary stewards of the land’s 40 acres (also, they are great, and you should really get to know them!).
The site has some areas that are wheelchair accessible, but the grounds are mostly unpaved and gently sloping. Some workshop spaces are outdoors and spaced several hundred yards apart, though most are close together and either indoors or shaded. As late September tends to be toward the start of the rainy season in Oregon, we suggest all attendees prepare for autumn weather (e.g. cool and moist).
* Please note that Brown Bottle Farm requests that no outside pets come on site with attendees. If you have a registered service animal that you must bring with you, please contact us prior to registering to discuss your needs. Thank you for your understanding.
