Our Award-Winning Mushroom Costume at Telluride
|
|
Time to read 6 min
Every August in Telluride, Colorado, the streets come alive with spores, sequins, and an absolute mycelial mob of creativity. The mushroom costume parade is not just a spectacle—it’s a ritual, a runway, and a moment where fungi lovers shed their human characters and reveal their true spore-born selves.
At Hamilton’s Mushrooms, we don’t just show up for the parade—we live for it. In fact, in 2024, we took home the win for “Best Entheogenic Mushroom” at the Telluride Mushroom Festival. The category didn’t exist before. They had to make one… for us.
This blog is a behind-the-scenes look at:
- Our favorite costume(s) of all time
- The story of the Tasilli Bee Shaman
- The wearable art crafted by my father, Lawrence Pevec
And what it means to show up fully mycofabulous in a world that often forgets how fun—and weird—it is to be alive.
The Essentials | TL;DR
-
In 2024, Hamilton’s Mushrooms won “Best Entheogenic Mushroom”
The Telluride Mushroom Festival created a new category just for this iconic mushroom costume. -
The costume was inspired by ancient cave art: the Tasilli Bee Shaman
A 9,000-year-old image became reality through the work of artist Lawrence Pevec. -
Lawrence Pevec creates custom wearable mushroom art
From myth to fiber, his mushroom costumes are handmade rituals of transformation. -
Hamilton captured the spirit of the festival in a short film
The parade isn’t a costume contest—it’s a cultural unmasking of our fungal selves.
🎥 Watch the film -
You can make your own mushroom costume—or commission one
DIY guides and deep symbolism coexist in the Telluride parade. Make it weird. Make it real.
The Telluride Mushroom Festival costume parade is where mycology meets mythology—and Hamilton’s Mushrooms brought it all to life with a winning entheogenic mushroom costume, ancestral inspiration, and a family legacy of wearable art. Whether you DIY your fungal fit or seek a custom masterpiece, this is your invitation to reveal your truest mushroom self.
Why Mushroom Costumes Matter
A mushroom costume is more than just fabric and flair. It’s a declaration. A transformation. A reminder that fungi are not just food or medicine—they’re culture, mythology, ecology, and community all in one.
Nowhere is this more beautifully embodied than at the Telluride Mushroom Festival—a wild, multi-day gathering where scientists, artists, families, and mycophiles collide in full fungal regalia. Here, the mushroom costume is sacred. It’s silly. It’s sublime.
Some people spend months crafting their looks. Others throw something together the night before using trash (because mushrooms do eat trash, after all). Either way, the result is the same: a mycommunity of humans dissolving ego through spores, sequins, and shared absurdity.
So if you’ve ever wondered:
-
“What is considered the best mushroom?”
The one that makes you feel most yourself in costume.
-
“Are there family-friendly mushroom festivals?”
Telluride is as family-friendly as it is freaky—there’s something for every age, species, and spore. Yes, there will be candy, but make sure you know exactly what type of mushroom chocolate you're giving to your kids!
The 2024 “Best Entheogenic Mushroom” Winner
In 2024, something extraordinary happened: Hamilton’s Mushrooms won “Best Entheogenic Mushroom” at the Telluride Mushroom Festival’s legendary costume contest.
Except… that category didn’t exist.
They had to invent it for us.
The judges saw the costume and knew it wasn’t just a mushroom. It was myth. It was memory. It was medicine. And it needed its own category.
The costume, designed and built by my father, Lawrence Pevec, wasn’t just a costume. It was wearable myco-art—a fully embodied tribute to the entheogenic mushroom experience, rooted in prehistoric imagery and brought to life with meticulous craftsmanship.
And let’s be clear: the trash-talking among parade contestants is real. It goes on all year. So winning this award wasn’t just an honor—it was a mic drop. Or maybe… a spore drop.
Btw.. did I mention that our Turkey tail mushroom costume won "Best Costume" in 2023? That one was also crafted by my father, Lawrence... his handiwork helped us beat the reigning champions!
Becoming the Tasilli Bee Shaman
This wasn’t just any costume—it was a full-body portal into the past.
The inspiration? A 7,000–9,000 year-old cave painting from Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria—often cited as one of the earliest known depictions of entheogenic mushroom use. The figure in the painting is part-human, part-bee, part-mushroom. A shaman in transformation. A bridge between species, consciousness, and symbolism.
I stepped into that image and became it:
“The amazing thing was that the costume wasn’t just based on the art—it was the art. I got to become the Tasilli Bee Shaman, and during the parade, I met Kat Harrison, the illustrator who brought that cave art to modern visibility. It felt like we fulfilled some karma by becoming her drawing.”
That moment—walking in the parade as the bee shaman and meeting the woman who helped preserve its visual history—was more than a win. It was a closing of a 9,000-year loop. It was ancestral.
Meet the Artist: Lawrence Pevec
The creative force behind the costume? Lawrence Pevec—artist, visionary, and yes, my dad.
Lawrence doesn’t just make mushroom costumes—he crafts wearable rituals. His work blends sculpture, symbolism, and a keen sense of ecological storytelling. Every piece he makes is layered: in texture, in meaning, and in ancestral memory.
This wasn’t his first mushroom masterpiece either. He’s created multiple fungal forms for the Telluride parade over the years, each one built from scratch using innovative design techniques with his signature blend of ancient references and futuristic funk.
“The truth is costume is a strong word. The parade is a mob of mushrooms showing their true selves. And the rest of the time, we wear our human characters.” - Me (Hamilton Pevec)
Lawrence is currently available for custom commissions. So if you’re ready to stop wearing your human character and let your inner mycelium emerge—he’s your guy.
Interested in a custom mushroom costume? Reach out to Lawrence via Instagram @lawrencepevec
The Film: A Love Letter to the Parade
In addition to being the embodiment of the Tasilli Bee Shaman, I am also a filmmaker—and it only made sense to capture the magic of the parade on film.
My latest short documentary, FEST IN SHOW: Dethroning The Kin, is exactly what it sounds like: a chaotic, joyful, spore-drenched glimpse into one of the weirdest and most wonderful traditions in the fungal world.
🎥 Watch it here → FEST IN SHOW, Dethroning The Kin
The film isn’t just a recap—it’s a devotional sporeprint. A love letter to the wild myco-culture that erupts every year in the San Juan Mountains. It captures the transformation, the trash-talking, the sheer weirdness of it all—and the heart.
Because let’s be real: the parade isn’t a costume contest. It’s a collective identity reveal.
Want to Make Your Own Mushroom Costume?
If you’ve been wondering how to make a mushroom costume DIY, you’re not alone. Every year, the Telluride parade welcomes all levels of fungi fashion—from high-concept wearable art to last-minute mycelial mayhem made of cardboard and zip ties.
DIY Mushroom Costume Basics:
- Cap: Use foam, felt, or paper mâché over a hat or helmet base
- Gills: Try fabric, coffee filters, or layered paper
- Stipe (stem): Jumpsuit, robe, or body suit in earthy tones
- Spores (optional): Glitter and confetti aren't recommended (MOOP) but a mesh trailing fabric might be a go
- Hot glue, patience, and a lack of shame are essential
Remember: this isn’t Halloween. This is a ritual. A rebellion. A bio-spiritual transmission. Whether you go DIY or custom commission, the key is to let your fungal freak flag fly.
Or… want something truly unforgettable? Reach out to Lawrence Pevec for a custom build. Because some mushrooms can’t be grown overnight
Why We Love the Mushroom Parade
The Telluride Mushroom Parade isn’t just a party—it’s a spore-driven ceremony of collective weirdness. It’s a place where biologists, artists, toddlers, elders, and mycophiles of every variety come together to become something stranger—and more true—than what they are the other 364 days of the year.
The mushroom costume isn’t a disguise. It’s a reveal. It’s how we remember we’re not separate from nature—we’re made of it.
So if you’re looking for the best mushroom costume, you'll likely find it at this festival that’s wild, meaningful, and absolutely family-friendly?
You’ve found it.
So if you’re still wondering what is considered the best mushroom?
We'l remind you: it’s the one you embody fully, in all your spongy, spore-blasting glory. Figure it out and get dialed because TMF 2025 is just around the corner. Checkout Paul Stamets at Telluride Mushroom Festival 2025 to learn more about this years event!
Hamilton Pevec
Hamilton believes that effective, affordable medicine is a fundamental right. Healing should never be hindered by cost. Driven by this belief, Hamilton left his career to dedicate his life to mushrooms. His journey is one of lifelong learning—mastering mushroom identification, cultivation, and understanding the profound physiological benefits of these natural “chemical factories.” Hamilton’s Mushrooms is dedicated to making pure, potent, science-backed mushroom extracts accessible to all.