Kennett Square Mushroom Festival pairs 220-plus vendors with local stages
# Kennett Square Mushroom Festival Brings Music, Food and Community to Chester County
**KENNETT SQUARE, PA —** One of Chester County’s biggest annual celebrations returns September 12–13 as the **41st Annual Kennett Square Mushroom Festival** takes over downtown Kennett Square for a weekend of food, music, local businesses, family entertainment and, naturally, mushrooms.
Known around the world for its mushroom-growing industry, Kennett Square turns that agricultural heritage into a sprawling community celebration. More than **220 vendors** are expected to line the streets, joined by food vendors, artisans, growers, live performers and activities throughout the weekend.
Festival hours are **10 a.m.–6 p.m. Saturday, September 12**, and **9 a.m.–4 p.m. Sunday, September 13**. Admission is **$5 per person**, payable by cash or Venmo, and the festival wristband is valid for both days. The event takes place rain or shine.
## Living Colour's Corey Glover and Vernon Reid Highlight Saturday
Music fans have an especially good reason to make the trip Saturday.
**Corey Glover and Vernon Reid of Living Colour** are scheduled for a special acoustic duo performance at **The Market at Liberty Place**, beginning at **6 p.m. Saturday** and running until 8 p.m.
The appearance puts two musicians associated with one of rock's most distinctive bands into a dramatically different setting. Instead of a full electric Living Colour performance, festival visitors will get Glover and Reid in an acoustic configuration in the middle of Kennett Square.
Their performance caps a Saturday filled with local live music and entertainment across the festival.
## More Than Mushrooms
The mushrooms may get top billing, but the festival has grown into something much larger.
Visitors can explore approximately a mile of festival activity, including mushroom growers' exhibits, fresh mushroom sales, arts and crafts, local businesses, children's entertainment and a culinary stage.
Food remains a centerpiece. Along with festival favorites such as fried mushrooms and mushroom soup, chefs will demonstrate different ways of working with the crop that made Kennett Square famous.
The **Mushroom “Chopped” Contest** puts cooks into competition using mushrooms as a featured ingredient, while Sunday's schedule includes the contest finale and a breaded mushroom eating contest.
For anyone curious about where their food actually comes from, the growers' exhibit provides a look at mushroom cultivation from the laboratory through harvest — and an opportunity to meet some of the people behind an industry deeply connected to the region.
## A Festival That Gives Back
There's another side to the weekend that deserves attention.
The Mushroom Festival operates a **year-round grant program supporting nonprofit organizations throughout Southern Chester County**. Festival revenue, sponsorships and community participation help fund those grants.
The program has supported organizations and initiatives involving emergency response, food access, education, youth development, veterans, the arts and other community services.
That makes the festival more than a weekend attraction. Money generated when thousands of people descend on Kennett Square is reinvested into organizations serving the surrounding community.
It's a model that fits particularly well with what **U-ROCK® Network** believes local media should be covering: independent music, local businesses, working communities and the people creating something worthwhile where they live.
## A Chester County Tradition
What began in 1985 as a much smaller local celebration has developed into a nationally recognized event capable of attracting **more than 25,000 visitors over two days**.
Yet its identity remains unmistakably Kennett Square.
It's farmers and growers meeting the people who eat what they produce. It's independent vendors setting up beside established local businesses. It's chefs, musicians, artists, families and nonprofit organizations occupying the same streets for a weekend.
And this year, you can add Corey Glover and Vernon Reid playing acoustic music in the middle of it.
**The Mushroom Festival**
**September 12–13, 2026**
Downtown Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
**Saturday:** 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
**Sunday:** 9 a.m.–4 p.m.
**Admission:** $5 — cash or Venmo; wristband valid both days
**Corey Glover & Vernon Reid:** Saturday, 6–8 p.m., The Market at Liberty Place
**U-ROCK® Network — Music. Community. Culture.**
