The Great Googa Post-Mortem

So, the Great Googa Mooga happened over the weekend. For some the massive food, booze, and music festival was a total disaster, for others it was time well-spent. What it ended up coming down to is when you went.

If you went on Saturday, you probably spent a very long time on lines. For the Googamoula, for the booze, for the food. Because you had to put money on a Googamoula card before you could buy booze (and the system was down), early on the booze lines were empty while the ID/ Googamoula lines were endless, and the volunteers were ill-prepared to be of much help. Then there was the food to worry about, and access to water and toilet paper.

For those who had Extra Mooga tickets, it seems as if you got the particularly short end of the stick. After forking over $250, you were met with equally long lines for very small portions of food, which ran out quickly. Getting booze didn't seem to be a problem, though, but nothing I've heard made it seem worth the expense.

Berbere Chicken from Red Rooster Harlem

I had tickets for Sunday, so by that point it was pretty clear that getting there early was key. When I arrived at about 11:15, it was a pleasant surprise to learn that Googamoula had been abandoned entirely, and all booze vendors were now cash-only. The crowds didnt really begin to pick up until about 2 or so, and by that point I had tried just about all of the food I wanted to. By the time the (hilariously insane) Peelander-Z show ended, I had both maxed out my budget and tolerance for excessive sunlight, so I called it a day. I heard that the lines died down again by about 5:30 or so, and that Hall and Oates rocked out far more than expected.

Peelander Red (Kotaro Tsukada) on the porta-johnsSo at the end of the day, I think what it really comes down to is when you were there. If you went on Saturday or had Extra Mooga, you most likely left angry, hungry, and disappointed, and for that the organizers should apologize (and offer refunds to those who felt they wasted money on EM tickets). But they should also be commended for turning it around for Sunday. I think Anthony Bourdain put it best last night: "Yesterday: googamooga no like. Today: better. Lots better. Even kinda awesome."

What was your experience like?

The One Thing You Should Do Before Heading to GoogaMooga

The Great GoogaMooga is upon us, folks, and it's shaping up to be a hell of a weekend. Nice weather, food, music, and what's sure to be a massive, massive crowd will be taking over Prospect Park's Nethermead, and if one thing's for certain, it's that it will definitely all be overwhelming.

The festival organizers have been helping us out by sending out plenty of emails to those who scored tickets, and last night they send out the big one, going over what is and isn't allowed in, imploring people to bring cash and to not drive there, and the usual assortment of festival dos and don'ts, but there was one particularly useful bit of information tucked in there:

Download the app!

Not only does it provide a map of the entire festival grounds, it allows you to click on each vendor and see what they're serving up. So for example, you'll know to stay away from The Spotted Pig's booth, because they're selling $28 Pan Roasted Skate, and to seek out Joseph Leonard's $6 Fried Chicken Banh Mi or Roberta's $8 Pizza Margherita (just make sure you save room for Do or Dine's foie gras donut and Momofuku's Crack Pie). If you click on a venue you'll see its full schedule and lineup, and even the ATMs are on there.

There also a place in the app to create your own eating and listening schedule from all the offerings, rate the menu items for others to see, get all the latest news, and apply a GoogaMooga-themed frame around the photos you take there.

But seriously, that map is really going to come in handy.

First Batch of GoogaMooga Music Lineup Announced

The Great Googa Mooga, the epic food and music festival that's slated to take over Prospect Park's Nethermead on May 19th and 20th, has withheld one vital bit of information- the music lineup- until now. Just released, the first tranche of artists who will be taking the stage during that weekend, with more to come (We've been told that there will be at least 10 acts performing each day). So here it is, and as of right now it looks like the headliners on Saturday will be the Roots, and on Sunday... Hall and Oates.

A Message From Googa Mooga Ticketer Eventbrite's CEO

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."

Question of the Day: Did You Get Googa Mooga Tickets?

So, I just spent an hour and a half staring at a screen that kept reassuring me that I was on line for tickets to The Great Googa Mooga Festival, which will be taking place on May 19th and 20th in Prospect Park's Nethermead. Finally, it rerouted to a screen that said tickets were no longer available, so I signed up for the waitlist.

What was your experience? Did you get through? Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come...