Return of the Great GoogaMooga

The Great GoogaMooga is returning to Prospect Park this weekend. Last year's festival drew 30,000 people and left Superfly, the entertainment production and marketing agency that runs the event, scurrying to keep up. Festival goers had a laundry list of complaints last year, but the team has reworked the format with hopes to avoid making the same blunders. The Googa website notes, "It’s fair to say we learned a lot last year. We’re changing, adding, tweaking, building—to make this year’s festival better for you in every way."

This year's festival launches Friday, with a Kickoff Concert featuring Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Flaming Lips, and the Darkness. Tickets for that event are $55, but the rest of GoogaMooga is free (tickets were granted to those who registered on a lottery basis). There will be ten more fod stalls than last year, making a total of 85 contributing restuarants and, unlike last year, most of these vendors will have bottled water for sale. Guests are also allowed to bring their own now. Temporary cell towers will be brought in to ensure reliable phone service, so guests will be able to go nuts on Instagram.

Fences have gone up around the perimeter of the festival grounds, but we got in yesterday to snap a few pictures of GoogaMooga Part II coming together in Prospect Park.

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Full Refund for ExtraMooga Ticket Holders

photo by craig cavalloSome of the most significant complaints from the Great Googa Mooga festival held over the weekend in Prospect Park were those from the ExtraMooga ticket holders. The $250 ticket price offered separate entrances to the event, backstage mingling with musicians and food celebs, and all inclusive food, wine, beer, and cocktails. Unfortunately, many complained that the food offerings and value of the ticket came nowhere near the price of the ticket.

In response to the outcry of angry ExtraMoogaers, Superfly, the organizers of the event (also of Tennessee's Bonnaroo), are providing a refund to all ExtraMooga ticket holders. 

"We are offering a 100% refund to anyone who attended ExtraMooga: the full ticket price, credit card fees—everything, our intentions were to do something great. We were definitely ambitious. But we also wanted to do something top notch. We did not deliver on the promise we made for the ExtraMooga, and that’s why we’re going to make it right.”

If you splurged on the ExtraMooga ticket and want a refund, follow these instructions.

Great Googally Moogally

photo by craig cavallo

The Great Googa Mooga took place in Prospect Park over the weekend and the event drew over 30,000 people. If you got there early enough (before noon) you had about 25 minutes to hit as many of the 75 stands as possible before the lines grew to 60 deep and stayed that way for the rest of the day.

A "Googa Moula" tent was set up to provide a cashless card system, where a value was placed on a card that you could then use at the wine and/or beer pavillions. Sounds like a great idea, but the system malfunctioned before noon (people were let in at 11:30am), so people were issued red tickets at a $1/ticket rate that you could then exchange for booze.

Most food vendors ran out of food around 4pm. Do or Dine sold through 800 of their foie gras donuts in just over 3 hours. As stands slowly began to run out of product, lines at neighboring vendors began to swell and waits grew to upwards of an hour.

Eater has an interview with co-founder Rick Farman that sheds some light on the incredible fest as the founders plan to smooth things out and make a return next year.  "Hopefully we'll be able to make it up to the people that had a bad experience. We look forward to making it a better event, and we are the kind of organization that's good at adapting."

When asked if they will be doing the event again Farman said, "We have every intention of doing it next year."

A Sneak Peek at the Great Googa Mooga, Taking Over Prospect Park this Weekend

The Great Googa Mooga is finally here. Festivities kick off tomorrow morning at 11:15. A stroll through Prospect Park today reveals what looks as if Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory has gone savory.

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Tertulia: The Weekend Warrior

Last Friday, May 11th, marked the start of Tertulia's late night bar service.  The bar will now be open until 2am on Fridays and Saturdays.  The restaurant has also opened their outdoor space and welcomes guests for lunch, weekend brunch, and dinner.

Chef Seamus Mullen spent the afternoon last Friday at 92Y, talking about his new cookbook, Hero Food.  The book is a candid look at Chef Mullen's life living with rheumatoid arthritis, which he was diagnosed with five years ago.  The book focuses on 18 ingredients that he calls "hero foods" that help maintain a healthier lifestyle.

"Seamus's "heroes" are real food, elemental things like good meat, good birds, eggs, greens, grains, and berries. He cares about how his vegetables are grown, how his fruit is treated, and about the freshness and sustainability of the fish he uses. His hope is that you will eventually forget about why these recipes are good for you, and that you'll make them just because they taste good."

In other Seamus Mullen news, Tertulia is now part of the Extra Mooga ticket for this weekends Googa Mooga event.