Auckland’s Inagurual Mushroom Festival Is Coming To Karangahape Road This Month

The humble and much-maligned mushroom is a deeply misunderstood creature. Often relegated to the back of fridges, the singular and deeply depressing vegetarian option on a carnivorous menu, or, occasionally, hitting the news for all the wrong reasons (beef wellington anyone?), we often fail to give mushrooms the attention or fanfare they deserve. Until now. 

The inaugural Auckland Mushroom Festival is bringing all things fun and fungi to Karangahape Road this month. Across three days from 12-15 August, the strip will be packed full of informative talks, special dishes, and mushroom-themed parties (yes, really) that aim to inform and delight and take a playful angle to this most wintry of ingredients.

Image credit: Mushroom Risotto | Otto

For the food-focused among us, some of our favourite Auckland restaurants will be cooking up special mushroom-focused dishes over the course of the festival. At Gemmayze Street there will be Lebanese mushroom dumplings, Sagrado Cantina will be cooking up a huitlacoche-inspired quesadilla, Tempero will be celebrating the inimitable partnership of mushroom and truffle in a tamal, Pici and Coco's Cantina will be whipping up mushroom pastas, and more. If you really want to push the boundaries of what a mushroom can be, finish the night at Open Late with their one-off mushroom espresso martini. 

Not just about lining your stomachs, though, the festival's Spore Speaker Series brings some of Aotearoa's most talented mushroom specialists for informative sessions on fungi. Some of our favourites include an investigation into the use of mushrooms in mental health treatment with scientist Sam Lasham, a guide to capturing mushrooms in the wild with photographer Jay Lichter, and a walk through mushrooms as medicine with plant medicine guide Raquel Minh. All are facilitated by Liv Sisson, author of the formative book Fungi of Aotearoa. 

Image credit: Mushrooms | Jay Lichter 

Elsewhere, there will be a micro-mushroom market, a collage night at Coco's Cantina, flash fungi tattooos at Easy Tiger Tattoo and, of course, the big shebang; the Giant Puff Ball at Whakamana: the Cannabis Museum of Aotearoa inside Hopetoun Alpha, which brings music, fungi-inspired party games and mushroom art installations together in one great party. 

Essentially, it's a three day affair celebrating all the best parts of one of Auckland's most creative precincts through the lens of one of our most unique ingredients. Now, who was it that said Auckland was dead in winter? 

Want more? Check out: 

• All The Essential Food News (So You Can Be In The Know And Eat It Too)
• What's On In Auckland This Weekend
• All The Best Events At Visa Wellington On A Plate 2026

Image credit: Jay Lichter | Supplied