The Auckland Mushroom Festival runs from 12 to 15 August on Karangahape Road, with more than 20 restaurants offering fungi-inspired dishes, art installations including mushroom sculptures and a sound installation, a speaker series on psychedelics and foraging, and a Saturday costume parade through the new CRL station before it officially opens. Fungi enthusiast, author and festival co-ordinator Liv Sisson joins Culture 101 to explain why New Zealand has an estimated 20,000 fungi species, 90 percent of them found nowhere else on earth, and to make the case for a Fungi of the Year award.