Mushroom Mardi Gras Festival

Brad Spencer (July 6, 1942 - July 2, 2015),[7] the founder of the festival, first conceptualized the idea when he was a fire chief for the Morgan Hill Fire Department. As a participant in the Dickens Christmas Fair in South San Francisco, Spencer realized that a fundraiser for the fire department could be achieved by ways of hosting a festival. With the heavy amounts of mushrooms being produced, in October 1980, the first festival pooled in 30,000 visitors including locals and people out-of-town.[8]

Akiko Omura Kubo, descendant of Japanese immigrant Shomatsu Omura and Californian-born Shizuko Dorothy Takasaka, was born on April 19, 1942, in San Jose, California. During that time, the conflicts in World War II was at its peak. At 50 days of age, Kubo was transferred to the Santa Anita Assembly Center. Subsequently, Kubo was sent to Heart Mountain, Wyoming for three years before moving on to college. However, her mother's cousin urged for funds to help start a mushroom farm. Her husband, David Kubo (born in Mountain View, California), aspired to be a pharmacist but ultimately switched from the field of medicine to more agricultural matters. Kubo's husband studied at the American Mushroom Institute to pursue a job at the South Valley Mushroom Farm (later founded in 1978).[9] Kubo, along with the rest of her family, saw the surplus amount of mushrooms grown as an opportunity to repurpose them. Ever since the first Mushroom Festival, Kubo donated her mushrooms from her family's farm to the festival.[10]