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A Message From Googa Mooga Ticketer Eventbrite's CEO
Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 11:30PM 
I think it can be safely said that yesterday's release of tickets for The Great Googa Mooga was an unmitigated disaster. Few actually made it to the confirmation page, and for those who didn't it was a harrowing ordeal that dragged on for over an hour. I, along with many others, ended up having to sign up for the wait list even though I first got "in line" at noon sharp.
Last night I received an email from Kevin Hartz, CEO of ticketing agent Eventbrite. After apologizing for the "debacle," here's what he had to say:
"More tickets will be released prior to the event and wait listed folks will be notified as soon as information becomes available. The site issues fall entirely on us, and we take this type of rare occurrence very seriously.
While there were people who were successful in securing early registration tickets for GoogaMooga, unfortunately, we also let a lot of people down. In short, we had technical difficulties due to traffic and demand on our servers.
At Eventbrite, we are completely committed to offering a smooth, pain-free ticketing experience for event attendees and organizers, and we failed on that today. We are working together with the GoogaMooga event organizers to take care of everyone who was trying to get tickets today and fulfill all pending registration requests.
-Customers who arrived on the confirmation screen, but who did not yet receive an email with confirmation of their registration, will be receiving a confirmation email shortly.
-More tickets will be released prior to the event, so folks should stay tuned to GoogaMooga.com for more info.
-VIP tickets are not sold out, and are available here: http://extramooga.eventbrite.com/
We are already putting measures in place to avoid similar issues for future large-scale events, and are committed to preventing this from happening again."
Great Googa Mooga
Reader Comments (17)
Wow, HPS gets a scoop. Congratulations, you've arrived.
Now, if we can only get rid of the trolls leaving vulgar comments after your ground-breaking stories....
So basically:
Sorry it didn't work!
Don't hate us!
It won't happen again!
But in no way are they going to make amends to all the locals who were highly anticipating this event. Being labeled as "free registration" didn't give me an indication that tickets would be so hard to come by. They should have advertised is as an exclusive engagement for which tickets will sell out very quickly. I got more of a "it's free, come join us" vibe.
Felton: Given the fact that this is the same outfit that puts on Bonnaroo and that there was extensive publicity, both in the food and music spheres, few of us doubted this would be a popular event. Everbrite was no different than any other ticket vendor for a popular, limited-attendance event. Think of World Series tickets, Jay-Z or some other popular artist or even the fund-raising events at Celebrate Brooklyn . More demand than supply. Period. I don't think the promoters owed Park Slope residents any preference.
Console yourself with the knowledge that this is going to be one big sh*tshow. Really. 20,000 people each day trying to taste food from Roberta's, M.Wells, Frankies, etc. Plus, beer, beer and more beer.
You gotta believe there'll be lines stretching an hour or more at popular tents. And, with those lines, how many vendors can you sample? Do we even know how much each will charge to sample their wares?
You're really better off making a list of your favorite Bklyn restaurants and visiting one or two each week. You'll get a seat (you can't bring a portable chair with you to the Great Googa Mooga), there'll be a clean rest room with no line (you don't drink beer, you only borrow it, advises the poster in many college dorm rooms in the 70s) and, if the weather sucks, you've got a roof over your head.
Yes, the ticket issuing process for this event was a giant fail. But, sometimes, these things can be blessings in disguise.
I hear you. Also, I'm not saying locals should get special treatment, but knowing the scale of a show like this in NYC, given all their experience running Bonaroo, I feel they should have anticipated the scale of the popularity a bit better. Additionally, I was probably a bit naive in assuming I'd be able to get two of 40,000 tickets if I logged on right at noon.
Anyway, that said, you make a good point. The festival could be a giant s-show, and like one commenter said before, amount to nothing more than waiting in lines for food all day.
I'll be better off at my local pub for a few, then heading out for nice dinner, knowing I've avoided what was probably a pretty frustrating day at the festival.
One more point: as you look at people's complaints on twitter and brooklynvegan, you realize how many people had multiple browsers open simultaneously to try to score these tickets. Is it any wonder everbrite was overwhelmed, with two, four or more signals coming from each ticket-seeker? There should be a way to bump multiple signals, as that situation creates an unfair advantage for those who utilize that method.
Anyway, the math is simple: 40,000 tickets @ 4 tickets/person=10,000 requests honored. With the use of multiple browsers and individuals employing multiple email addresses to score tickets, I bet fewer than 5,000 people actually got tickets.
One guy on Brooklynvegan had 45 tabs open. Hilarious. I never had a shot.
my mistake: it's eventbrite.
i think everbrite makes baby bottles or something like that.
I actually DO think locals should get special treatment.
After all, we choose to live here and pay a lot more than other neighborhoods to reap the benefits of living in this neighborhood.
People coming in from Manhattan, Queens etc should get second-rate treatment, just as we do in going to events in their hoods. Just my opinion (though I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking this).
So tell me, Dave..how do people in Manhattan and Queens get preferential treatment at events in their "hoods"? Is there a separate ticket window for Manhattan residents at Central Park Summerstage? Does the Arthur Ashe Tennis Center reserve courtside seats for Kew Gardens residents?
There's a touch of sarcasm in your comment, so I'm not sure you're serious, but I live steps from the park and have no expectations that if I show my Con Edison bill, I'll be afforded any different treatment than anyone else at this event, or any other in our "hood".
We do not own Prospect Park because we lie on a single side of it. it's a public city park for ALL people in every neighborhood, even those in Queens and Staten Island. We are just lucky to live next to it. And btw, there are OTHER neighborhoods which border Prospect Park besides Park Slope. If they were to give prefential treatment to "locals" it would need to go to Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Windsor Terrace, Prospect Lefferts Garden and Crown Heights. As you can imagine, there would be no tickets left after that.
I think it's a mistake to assume that because one neighborhood which is one of many which surround the park have more say in what happens there because we were foolish enough to pay through the nose for it is very elitist and just plain wrong. Prospect Park is for every person who would like to visit it. If you don't like that, perhaps you should consider a move to Grammercy Park and wait in line for a key for access to their park the size of a postage stamp.
Oh I agree with Dave 100%. I think Slopers (and, yes, those in all neighboring areas of the park) should absolutely get special treatment in this. If you're going to do this in our backyard, you better make it so that we can attend. I couldn't care less about giving access to some Manhattanite who wouldn't otherwise step foot in Brooklyn outside of Bedford Ave. in Williamsburg.
The Fifth Avenue Festival is that weekend. While I love Marcus Samuelsson, and whatnot, too, I will just as happily continue to give my support to the less-heralded restauranteurs I've been giving it to for years.
I think the apology is wonderful. Unfortunately, it still does nothing for those who tried to get tickets and got a "sold out" message. Where's our confirmation email? We were there at the same time. Telling us they'll do the same debacle later, r pushing us towards $250 (!!) VIP tickets isn't doing a whole lot.
Yes, Park Place, Burning Man festival has exclusive entry gates for residents of the Black Rock Desert.
Prospect Park is not your backyard. The area behind your home is your backyard. Prospect Park is a city park.
Sounds like a lot of sour grapes on here to me. If you all had gotten tickets yesterday, there wouldn't be this outlandish sense of entitlement now that you didn't.
Anyone ever see the old Monty Python sketch about the cheese shop, where John Cleese attempts to buy cheese, but no matter what cheese he mentions, the shop doesn't have it? Imagine that — a cheese shop with no cheese.
Kind of like a ticket seller with no tickets. At least the Monty Python sketch was funny. Not so funny was the Great GoogaMooga Ticket Disaster.
But the whole fiasco did me a favor, actually. I had pretty much decided to buy VIP tickets, but when I saw the disastrous attempt to parcel out the free tickets, I quickly rethought the whole thing and have now decided to skip it. That decision was reinforced when I saw that each $249.50 VIP ticket also incurs an additional charge of $17.71, something called a "Fee".
So the free tickets were pretty much a joke for most who tried, while the $249.50 ticket is really $267.21 per ticket. The price for my wife and me for a one-day VIP ticket, then, would be $534.42.
I think not.
After trying to get tickets & being shut out - I was there right at noon, kept getting re-directed & countless crashes & time outs later was told registration is full - I contacted the information link on their site and told them of my experience and how disappointed I was that the site didn't seem to work.
I received an email from Eventbrite apologizing for what happened & was given tickets for Saturday. Although the initial registration for tickets was a fail, at least they are trying to make it up to those of us who were shut out by the technical problems.
I got my tickets for Sunday!! Woot!!!!!!0
On the original day, I was put on the wait list. Subsequent e-mails allowed me to register today. But, it seems like it is only for admission for one person, not the four people that was originally indicated.
As someone else pointed out, I have a feeling the lines at this event to get food will take much of the fun out of it.