Bumps on the Road to GoogaMooga

So The Great GoogaMooga Festival happened this weekend in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. A food/music festival, this was the first year for the event and there were some obvious glitches. There were reports of beer and toilet paper shortages. Some folks thought the food was too pricey, the crowds too big, and the lines too long. Others were just hating on the whole thing because it was  Brooklyn-y with hipster-y Brooklyn-y people. Some of that was justified.

We went yesterday and judging from the coverage, we got the better of the two days. The crowds weren’t too huge, the waits not too long, organizers did away with a mandated Googa Moola card that wreaked havoc on Saturday, and there was nice weather, always the wild card for an outdoor festival.

With an event of this size and scale, a few hiccups are to be expected. The most important thing is recovering quickly. The organizers were seemingly helped by a manageable turnout on Sunday. But from our vantage point, it was a fun day at the park that had its quirks. (It helped that we ran into some old friends, a couple with their new baby.) The food was good and the people good-natured, if a little annoying here and there.

We’re guessing GoogaMooga will make a return appearance next year, hopefully with another lobster roll stand so we can actually have one.

*Update: Rick Farman, the co-founder of Superfly, the company behind the event, breaks down the wins and fails and confirms the event will happen next week. We would add the frustrations over the mobile reception to the list of things to look at next year, but we were able to tweet a very important picture of Hamageddon so were satisfied.

*Update: Organizers are offering a refund to anyone who purchased an Extra Mooga ticket and didn’t get enough food. And, the portion that was going to charity, will still benefit the Prospect Park Alliance.

 

 

 

 

 

[Top image: Pyrotechnics at the Hamageddon pig statue. 2nd image: A tweet from GoogaMooga. 3rd image: Air guitarists playing during a song by Lez Zepplin, an all-female Led Zepplin cover band. 4th image: Words of wisdom from comedian Jim Gaffigan. 5th image: The crowd in front of the GoogaMooga stage. All images, except the tweet, Tonya Garcia]