Last year Superfly Presents of Bonnaroo fame tried something completely different by bringing a festival that mixed food, beverages, music and culture to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. For many attendees, their visits to the fest – dubbed “Great GoogaMooga” – were filled with extremely lengthy waits for food and insane crowds. Event organizers even refunded money to those who paid for the Extra Mooga V.I.P. packages after food and drinks ran out with a quickness. That hasn’t stopped Superfly from trying again as they have just announced that GoogaMooga 2013 will take place in Prospect Park from May 17 – 19.
The music lineup features Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Flaming Lips, The Darkness, Matt & Kim, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, De La Soul and about 15 other acts. Superfly has recruited 85 restaurants to sell food at the event, up from last year’s tally of 75. Event organizers realize there were issues last year and have a few ideas, “We will be expanding the festival’s general admission footprint, increasing points of sale and improving transaction speeds for food and beverage purchases,” Superfly founder Jonathan Mayers told the New York Times.
While tickets to Friday and Saturday will be free to those entering a lottery between Monday, April 1st and Wednesday, April 3rd, you’ll have to pony up $49.50 for Friday’s action which includes performances by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Flaming Lips and The Darkness. Those purchasing tickets to Friday will get their choice of complimentary tickets to Saturday or Sunday. For more info head to the GoogaMooga website. Here’s the full music and food lineups…
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This past weekend The Great GoogaMooga took over Brooklyn’s Prospect Park for the first event of its kind – a hybrid music/food/beer/wine festival. GoogaMooga was put together by Superfly Presents, the organization that produces Bonnaroo and Outside Lands each year. While Saturday was marred by long lines everywhere you looked and disorganization, which led to hundreds of complaints on both Twitter and Facebook, Superfly learned from the issues of the event’s first day and recovered for a much more successful Sunday.
[The Roots via @droolius]
The event’s founders have just released a statement about the inaugural fest…
A huge thank you to everyone who helped make the inaugural Great GoogaMooga so special: all of the food & drink vendors, our excellent staff & volunteers, the amazing musicians & chefs, the park & mother nature for the unparalleled weather and most importantly, all of you fans!
And to those who had a frustrating experience on Saturday – we are sorry. We truly regret the first year glitches and really appreciate your patience as we worked to smooth them out. As with all our festivals, creating and providing an enjoyable experience for everyone is the driving force behind all that we do, and a responsibility we take very seriously. We couldn’t have done it without you and hope to see you all next year!
Jeff and I attended on Saturday and even though we were frustrated by the lines, we made the best of it and had a good time. While we didn’t make it back on Sunday, we were hopeful Superfly would take the criticisms coming at the company from all directions on Saturday to heart and it appears that’s exactly what happened. The terrible idea of having patrons exchange cash for “Googa Moola” was done away with on Sunday and ID’s were checked outside of the gates, which led to smaller lines for beer and wine on Day Two. If you searched “googamooga” on Twitter on Day One of the fest, all you saw was one complaint after another while it took 20 minutes of searching on Sunday to find a tweet with a complaint about yesterday’s festivities.
We’re glad the statement above mentions “next year” because if Superfly could fix so much in one day, imagine what they can do with a year?
Did you attend the debut of Great GoogaMooga? What did you think?
With the first annual Great GoogaMooga just a week and a half or so away, fest organizers have revealed the daily schedule of music, comedy and food and beverage-centric panels that will take place over the course of the two days. Of particular note on Saturday is comedian Marc Maron hosting a WTF Podcast, Noshing With… Ruth Reichl, David Chang, Aziz Ansari and James Murphy, and Beer vs Wine with Garret Oliver and Alan Benton. While we’ve got the New Orleans Brass Brunch with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Liquid Brunch: The Art of Daytime Drinking and Marcus Samuelson’s Harlem Renaissance Party circled on Sunday. Also we’re particularly excited to catch Anthony Bourdain, who will be speaking on both days at the Pagoda Stage from 5:45 to 6:45 PM on Saturday and from 5 to 6 PM on Sunday. While the free passes for The Great GoogaMooga are already gone, you can still grab Extra Mooga tickets, which include a slew of extra and exclusive perks.
Finally, we’ve got a second helping of news out of the Superfly Presents camp, as yesterday they announced the launch of Bonnaroo365, their new video partnership with YouTube. The channel is set to feature a mix of archival live performances, which we showcased yesterday, from the music festival’s ten year history, as well as a slew of original content that takes its inspiration from Bonnaroo’s “good stuff” ethos. Bonnaroo365 will also serve as the exclusive home for backstage and behind the scenes content shot on-site at this year’s festival.
Here’s the full slate of video offerings…
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On May 19 and 20 in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, Superfly Presents will stage the first annual The Great Googa Mooga, an event bringing together approximately 75 food vendors, 35 brewers, 30 winemakers and 20 live music performances. While the food vendors, brewers and winemakers were previously announced, today Superfly unveiled the 20 acts set to perform at the festival’s two stages.
Headlining the action will be The Roots, Holy Ghost! and Preservation Hall Jazz Band on Saturday, while Daryl Hall & John Oates along with Fitz & The Tantrums are a top Sunday’s bill. We’re also excited to see HT faves Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires on Sunday.
Here’s the full lineup…
SATURDAY MAY 19 The Roots • Holy Ghost! • Preservation Hall Jazz Band • The Pedrito Martinez Group Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens • Bear Hands • Unknown Mortal Orchestra • Fort Lean • Unchained (Van Halen Tribute)
SUNDAY MAY 20 Daryl Hall & John Oates • Fitz & the Tantrums • Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires Escort • Lez Zeppelin • Peelander-Z • Lucius
General ticket registration for free ducats starts tomorrow. More artists are expected to be announced soon.
Many potential Great GoogaMooga attendees were frustrated today in their efforts to sign up for free admission to the two-day food, drink and music festival, which is set to take place in Neathermead Meadow at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on May 19 and 20. Eventbrite, the company handling registration for the Brooklyn-based event, has updated the details on the sign-up page to read “Early registration is full. We apologize for the frustrations you had today in registering. If you haven’t been able to register yet please email us at info@googamooga.com.” There was also a note for those who made it through the registration process but didn’t receive an email: “For customers who received a confirmation message, but who did not yet receive an email with confirmation of your registration, please note that you will be receiving an email shortly.” So all hope isn’t lost for those who want to attend the inaugural edition of Superfly Presents’ new festival. If you want to go, either email the info@googamooga.com address or spring for the Extra Mooga Package.
Finally, while Jerry Garcia left behind a sizable musical legacy, that included 40+ years of recorded material both in the studio and of course on stage, the late Grateful Dead guitarist also left behind a treasure trove of his personal belongings after dying of a heart attack in 1995 at the age of 53. On May 8, auction home Bonhams will give fans a chance to buy a number of unique items from the Garcia estate, including a handful of original, never seen pieces of art, several acoustic stage-used guitars, handwritten setlists and even a 1983 Harley-Davidson motorcycle. An auction preview will take place in New York from April 11-16 and another in San Francisco May 4-7.
Last week we reported on a new festival from the co-creators of Bonnaroo, Superfly Presents, called The Great GoogaMooga that was billed as “an amusement park of food and drink.” Today, Superfly held a press conference where they revealed more details about the event, which is set to take place in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on May 19 and 20.
The Great GoogaMooga will host approximately 75 food vendors, 35 brewers, 30 winemakers and 20 live music performances. You’ll be able to attend the fest for free, but you will have to register beforehand to obtain a ticket. All concessions will be indiviually priced, though you can purchase a Extra Mooga pass for an all-inclusive experience. GA tickets and Extra Mooga passes will be available starting next Thursday, March 15, at Noon ET through the event’s website.
Superfly has enlisted a slew of foodie superstars such as Anthony Bourdain, David Rockwell and Marcus Samuelsson to create the fest’s look, feel and tastes. Tom Colicchio’s Colicchio & Sons, April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman’s The Spotted Pig, Roberta’s, Christina Tosi’s Momofuku Milk Bar, Daniel Boulud’s DBGB Kitchen & Bar, M.Wells, Do or Dine, Frankies 457 Spuntino, Russ & Daughters and the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop are among the vendors who will participate. The musical acts have yet to be announced, though Superfly has revealed LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy will spin a DJ set and comedian Aziz Ansari will perform.
Here’s a full list of the Googa Mooga “menu”…
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Slated for May 19 and 20, Bonnaroo creators Superfly Presents will bring both bands and food vendors to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park for an event dubbed The Great GoogaMooga. Billed as “A Theme Park of Food and Drink,” The Great GoogaMooga will feature 65 food vendors, 35 brewers, and 25 winemakers, plus over a dozen bands according to the folks at Grub Street.
As of now, just which vendors and bands will participate is unknown. Sign up for the event’s mailing list to find out who will play and serve food come May. We’ll be sure to bring you complete coverage of this food-meets-music fest over the coming months.
