KENNETT SQUARE — There’s music and street fair galore ahead this spring and summer.
Monday, the Kennett Square Borough Council unanimously approved two special events which are both popular fan favorites for the community and Brandywine Valley.
With full council support, the Kennett Flash Summer Rooftop Concert Series will be back beginning June 20, on the eve of the summer solstice.
The series will be held on the fourth floor of the Kennett Square Parking Garage, at the structure’s top level. There’s an elevator for those who don’t wish to use the stairs. People are encouraged to bring their own chairs. Patrons may also bring wine and beer as the event is BYOB friendly. Folks can also bring their own food.
“It’s essentially like stadium seating because of the way the parking garage is pitched,” Michael Hahn, executive director of the Flash, said on Wednesday. “It is almost like an auditorium or stadium style.”
If it rains, the Flash may pivot to an indoor venue or opt to reschedule that particular concert.
The series will run every Saturday, with the exception of the Fourth of July, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. from June 20 to August 29. Ticket prices vary.
Hahn said the musicians that shall perform this summer are both the most popular among Flash fans and the most successful tribute bands. Featured genres span classic rock, modern and alternative plus other 90s music.
“There will also be local original artists,” Hahn noted.
The series began in 2021 during the shutdown in Pennsylvania.
“People were spaced out on the rooftop,” Hahn reflected on the rooftop series’ early days. “It was really an opportunity for the Flash as well as the artists to continue providing live music for the community.”
The Kennett Flash started in 2009 by Historic Kennett Square, now known as Kennett Collaborative.
The late Dennis Melton then established the Flash as a nonprofit in 2013 with a listening room, which is a stage-centered live music room at 102 Sycamore Alley, in the heart of Kennett Square. The venue is BYOB only.
Melton passed in 2021 right before Hahn took over as executive director.
“We want the artist to have a high quality professional stage on which to perform to an attentive audience,” Hahn said of the café-style space on Sycamore Alley. He said this experience can be “inspirational, hugely educational and transformational.”
Mushroom Festival
Let’s get ready to rumble! The 41st annual Mushroom Festival returns September 11 through September 13. The popular event draws tens of thousands of people from across Southeastern Pennsylvania, and the nation, to Kennett Square.
This shroomin’ good time features a lively 1-mile street fair with a happy, family-friendly environment that is full of fungi celebrations, laughter and culinary delights in the Mushroom Capital of the World.
Noteworthy, John D’Amico is the new president of the Mushroom Festival. Like Hahn, he attended Monday’s council meeting.
With an economic impact of at least $1.1. billion in Pennsylvania, the mushroom industry employs approximately 10,000 people in Chester County.
Americans know Kennett Square as the Mushroom Capital of the World.
Southern Chester County’s mushroom farms, production houses and packaging facilities are densely located in New Garden and Kennett townships between the boroughs of Kennett Square and Avondale.
That’s the heart of the industry, and part of a 50-square-mile area that produces 60% of all mushrooms grown in North America.
Many people in mushroom houses across Southern Chester County are migrants who produce the bulk of the agriculture workforce.
“The mushroom industry, inclusive of its workers and connoisseurs, deserves a celebration mixed with passion, art and fun,” said Chester County Commissioner Josh Maxwell following last year’s 40th annual festival. “Every year, Kennett Square and the surrounding area do the industry justice in celebration of our fungi treat.”
“Eating mushrooms grown in America — fried, baked, seared, and stewed — is certainly the draw,” said Brian Dan-Ding of Alexandria.
“The Mushroom Festival has been part of this community for four decades,” said Gina Puoci, an event organizer who served as the Mushroom Festival president during the 40th annual celebration last year.
“People don’t realize that the wristband charges, all of the proceeds that we make, we give back to the community,” she said. Wristbands are good throughout the duration of the festival and cost $5 per person for people 12 or older.
During the last two decades, the Mushroom Festival has awarded $1.5 million to local organizations.
Last May, the Mushroom Festival donated nearly $200,000 to 44 nonprofits and community stakeholders including to emergency responders and police departments based in Southern Chester County.
Kennett Square Borough Council President Bob Norris celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Mushroom Festival in Kennett Square last year. (JEN SAMUEL – FOR DAILY LOCAL NEWS)
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Kennett Square Borough Council President Bob Norris celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Mushroom Festival in Kennett Square last year. (JEN SAMUEL – FOR DAILY LOCAL NEWS)
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