Ottawa burger bash set for May 2

Burgers are only half the story here. What Ottawa is really doing on Saturday, May 2, is turning a local morel mushroom festival into a bigger spring food event — one that starts with foraging and ends with burgers in the park. The event is the Tom Nauman Memorial Midwest Morel Fest & Burger Bash, and it runs in downtown Ottawa at Washington Square Park. If you were picturing a simple cookout, that undersells it by a lot. (northernpublicradio.org) ### What is happening on May 2? The festival is scheduled for Saturday, May 2, 2026, in downtown Ottawa, Illinois. Ottawa Downtown Association lists it at Washington Square Park from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and the event is framed as both a memorial event for (northernpublicradio.org)ttawa on Saturday. (ottawadowntownassociation.org) ### Who was Tom Nauman? Tom Nauman is treated as the founding figure behind Ottawa’s morel culture — the person local organizers credit with making “Morel Mania” a thing in the first place. Event pages describe the festival as a memorial in his honor and tie the whole day to his legacy, which helps explain why this is more than a generic food fair. It has a hometown-memory angle built into it. (ottawadowntownassociation.org) ### Why are morels the main event? Morels are wild spring mushrooms, and in the Midwest they carry a kind of seasonal obsession. Ottawa’s festival leans hard into that. The schedule includes “Morel University,” where attendees learn how to identify the mushrooms, followed by a guided hunt. There is also a Morel Market and(ottawadowntownassociation.org)owd as the burger crowd. (ottawadowntownassociation.org) ### How does the day actually unfold? The official schedule starts with hunt and market sign-in at 7:30 a.m. Then comes Morel University from 8 to 8:30 a.m., with buses leaving around 8:45 a.m. for the guided hunt. Organizers list the Morel Market running from 9 a.m. to 3 (ottawadowntownassociation.org) like a structured half-day festival. (ottawadowntownassociation.org) ### So where do the burgers fit in? That is the expansion piece. Local coverage says the Burger Bash is a newer addition to the annual morel event, which matters because it broadens the audience beyond mushroom hunters and serious foragers. One event listing says the Burge(ottawadowntownassociation.org)essible even if you have never hunted a morel in your life. (newsbreak.com) ### Is there beer and entertainment too? Yes — and that helps explain the “bash” part. The radio segment describes samples of a beer tied to the event and says the remaining batch was donated specifically for the festival. Event listings also point to live music and cooked morels during the public portion of the day. So the format is basically education first, then tasting and hanging out. (northernpublicradio.org) ### Why does this matter beyond Ottawa? Because small-town food events usually stay narrow. This one did not. Ottawa took a regional spring obsession — morels — and layered in burgers, beer, vendors, music, and a downtown setting. That is a smart way to turn a (northernpublicradio.org)hing it that way. (hcdestinations.com) ### Bottom line If you go on Saturday, expect a mushroom festival first and a burger event second — but that mix is exactly why it stands out. Ottawa is not just hosting a burger bash. It is packaging spring in northern Illinois into one very specific day. (northernpublicradio.org)