Michigan's Quirky Festival Involves A Giant Pizza And Something Strange Underground

These days, there are festivals to be found for just about anything that could have an audience of fans, but the star of this particular show is something that humans usually tend to avoid. The locale is the tiny town of Crystal Falls, Michigan, which is just north of the Wisconsin Border in the Upper Peninsula known for lake life vibes and summer vacations. The cause? Fungus, and there's one particularly large fungus in Crystal Falls that has made history for its size, spanning over 38 acres. 

This fungus' scientific term is Armillaria bulbosa, and in 1992 a scientist named Johann Bruhn discovered the massive growth, estimated to weigh around 200,000 pounds, in the Iron County Forest. The fungus itself is more than just the mushroom "fruit" we see rising above ground; it also includes the expansive fungal network of this record breaking fungus that makes it practically invisible without first doing a lot of digging.

In the name of this underground oddity that's estimated to be thousands of years old, the Humongous Fungus Festival was born in the early 1990s. While the town of Crystal Falls is normally home to less than 2,000 year-round residents, the annual Humongous Fungus Festival brings droves of curious visitors in each summer from all over — all in the name of Fungi and celebrating a scientific oddity in a uniquely fun way. A tradition like this that has been going for over three decades has some interesting ways of celebrating one of the largest recorded fungi in the world.

The Humongous Fungus is now a piece of Crystal Falls' identity, and the annual festival is a cornerstone event for the community to celebrate a fungal network that has been previously crowned the largest living organism in the world. The festival typically takes place in August, and the town of Crystal Falls is located about a 2-hour drive north of Green Bay, Wisconsin, known for its feverish football fans and a historic midwest stadium that's on every American football fan's bucket list. Alternatively, the festival could be part of an itinerary visiting the Upper Peninsula, which boasts a scenic byway with Lake Superior views. 

The festival is primarily located in Crystal Falls' downtown area, away from the actual location of the fungus, and the festivities kick off officially with a rummage sale and a parade through town. Here, you'll see locals and fungus enthusiasts mingle amidst a mix of fungus and mushroom themed floats, in theme with the star of the show. For those who are ambitious enough to attend in costume, there's a best dressed mushroom competition where you can enter as a single or as part of a group.

If the opening activities work up your appetite, there are a variety of food trucks and a mushroom cook-off, but the most notable bite at Humongous Fungus would have to be a bite of the massive 10 foot by 10 foot mushroom pizza. Each Saturday during festival weekend, volunteers band together to create one of the largest mushroom pizzas you'll lay eyes on, adorned with mushrooms picked directly from the fungal guest of honor. There is an ice cream truck and a pie spot called Pie Social in town that's a popular stop, and the festival has activities for kids like archery, street art and a soap box derby. 

For the more passionate fungi fans, you can take a bus trip to the Humongous Fungus itself for $60 per person. The 4-hour tour is guided and filled with fungus factoids, but past visitors do warn that there is not much to lay eyes on once you arrive. Though this mapped fungus covers acres of land and is the size of 140 football fields, it's mostly underground and the button mushrooms that emerge are the only sights to see above ground. 

To attend the festival, a pass costs $23-$27 for adults and $5 for students. As the weekend rolls on in Crystal Falls, the festival spills into the restaurants and local watering holes in Crystal Falls. Locals head towards the Raven's Nest for more pizza and late night drinks to reminisce on what should be an honorable mention on the list of truly bizarre festivals around the world.