Prospect Park got its first taste of the major festival experience last summer with The Great GoogaMooga. And while it was maybe a little bit of a shitshow, that’s no reason to not give it another try. So GoogaMooga is back this year, and they’ve made some changes. The festival will be three days (May 17-19) instead of two, it’ll have a larger general admission area and more places to buy the food and beers that the festival is all about. The Friday show will cost $50 and will feature the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Flaming Lips; the free shows Saturday and Sunday will feature Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Matt & Kim, De La Soul, Cults and Sharon Van Etten and 85 NYC restaurants.
Here’s the press release with all the details:
Great GoogaMooga, Superfly Presents’ amusement park of food, drink and music, will return to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park May 17-19, 2013. In its second year, GoogaMooga will feature a three-day format, up from two days in 2012. Adding to its stellar culinary personality, whereby 85 of New York’s top restaurants are paired with 75 brews and 100 wines, this year’s GoogaMooga will see 20 live performances from the likes of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Flaming Lips, Matt & Kim, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, The Darkness, Jovanotti, Father John Misty and De La Soul.
Tickets to Friday night’s kick-off concert with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Flaming Lips and The Darkness, along with tickets to the VIP Cocktail Experience for Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19 will go on sale Thursday, March 28 at 12pm.
Free General Admission tickets for Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19 will be available in an online giveaway running Monday, April 1 through Wednesday, April 3. Complimentary tickets will be awarded at random and recipients will be notified by email on or before Wednesday, April 10. All tickets will be available at www.googamooga.com
[Editor’s note: So, who’s going to go to this thing and who’s still scorned from last year? Leave your thoughts in the comments. Ok, more details:]
FOOD
Offering everything from duck sausage to grilled Maine lobster to Guinness stout brownies to foi gras doughnuts, GoogaMooga’s 2013 food lineup currently encompasses 85 restaurants (listed below). A few particularly exciting new additions this year, each epitomizing Brooklyn’s dynamic role in the culinary landscape, include Gywnnett St., Pork Slope, and Motorino. These join returning Brooklyn favorites such as Roberta’s Pizza, Calexico, Seersucker, South Brooklyn Pizza, Do or Dine, and Char No. 4. Manhattan restaurants new to the festival’s General Admission include Salvation Taco, Umami Burger, The Meatball Shop, Pig and Khao, Pok Pok Phat Thai, Jeepney, Eataly, Craftbar, Jeffrey’s Grocery, and Joe’s Pub. Fans can also look for Baohaus, Big Gay Ice Cream, Dinosaur BBQ, Momofuku Milk Bar, M.Wells, Colicchio & Sons and Crif Dogs, all returning. Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors will be on site with their famous dry-aged, prime beefs and acclaimed chef Ken Oringer will come down from Boston to serve Spanish tapas from his restaurant Toro. For those with dietary concerns, GoogaMooga has added more vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options to its menu.
Restaurants will once again serve food from charming hand-painted booths, reminiscent of old New York storefronts, and some will be found in areas like Pizza, Burgers, Sweet and Hamageddon. Inspired by the pig for all its porcine deliciousness, Hamageddon features Henri, a two-ton steel pig who is 22 feet, nose-to-tail. Guests will find Henri cooking food from a fiery rotisserie in his belly, vendors like Pig and Khao, Pork Slope, The Meatball Shop and Crif Dogs devoting themselves to mind-blowing combinations of bacon and pork, and BaconLand serving up bacon flights.
This year, GoogaMooga will partner with WORD and Housing Works Bookstore Cafe to add a new element that highlights the ripe intersection of food, drink, and literature at Café GoogaMooga, a tented area with a coffeehouse ambiance. Café GoogaMooga’s Literary Stage will spotlight writers – from celebrity-chef authors to critics, novelists, comic artists and poets – who are using food and drink as the main ingredients of their craft.
The Beer Experience and the Wine Experience, led by Peter Eastlake, who was recently named aFood & Wine magazine Sommelier of the Year, will return to offer extensive tastings and the opportunity to meet leading winemakers, brewers, importers and sommeliers (listed below).
Speaking to some of the improvements coming to the festival, Superfly’s Mayers said, “We always learn a lot from first year events and taking all the feedback into account, we will be expanding the festival’s General Admission footprint; increasing points of sale and improving transaction speeds for food and beverage purchases; offering a revamped VIP experience; and working with national cell phone carriers to add temporary cell phone towers.”
MUSIC
This year’s music performances will take place on two stages: The Nethermead Stage and The Joe’s Pub Stage, presented by Lexus and curated through a partnership with Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, one of New York City’s most celebrated venues for emerging and established performance artists. Lexus will also host their Culinary Masters program on the Joe’s Pub Stage with three award-winning and brand ambassador chefs. The Michelin-starred Christopher Kostow of The Restaurant at Meadowood will prepare a three-course menu at a Chef’s Counter on Saturday while on Sunday, Michelin-starred chef and international restaurateur Daniel Boulud along with James Beard Award Winning chef Michelle Bernstein of Michy’s in Miami will conduct cooking demonstrations.
LINEUPS
Friday, May 17 (4pm-10pm)
Friday evening will feature GoogaMooga’s kick-off concert headlined by New York City rockers Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Flaming Lips, both of which have highly anticipated new albums being released this spring. British glam metal band The Darkness will also perform. While a majority of the festival will be open on Friday, some of its areas will not be open until Saturday. Friday ticket buyers will be guaranteed one complimentary ticket, per ticket purchased, to either Saturday or Sunday.
Saturday, May 18 (11am-8pm) & Sunday, May 19 (11am-8pm)
Performances on Saturday are headlined by alternative duo and Brooklyn residents Matt & Kim, Italian pop mega-star Jovanotti, eccentric folk rock artist Father John Misty, Brooklyn folk rock queen Sharon Van Etten, and legendary soul singer Lee Fields with his band The Expressions.
The Sunday lineup features funk and soul with headliner Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, New York hip hop trio De La Soul, New York’s rising indie pop band Cults, experimental, instrumental pop with Delicate Steve, and the eight-piece New Orleans’ jazz, brass, funk and soul ensemble The Soul Rebels. Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater curated its eight performances, hosted on The Joe’s Pub Stage on both Saturday and Sunday, with an eye for local bands reflective of New York’s diversity. A few highlights include Brooklyn Bhangra party band Red Baraat, melodic folk trio Pearl and The Beard; cabaret superstar and comedienne Lady Rizo; high-energy eight-piece Afro-Colombian outfit M.A.K.U SoundSystem; sizzling Parisian-style jazz band The Hot Sardines, iconic New Orleans artist Jonathan Batiste, gospel and roots vocalist Marcelle Davies Lashley, and Mexican brass band Banda de los Muertos.
The VIP Cocktail Experience
Saturday, May 18 (11am-8pm) & Sunday, May 19 (11am-8pm)
GoogaMooga’s VIP Cocktail Experience gives ticketholders premiere viewing of the Nethermead Stage and exclusive access to the festival’s only cocktail experience. Curated by acclaimed mixologist Julie Reiner, Partner and Beverage Director of Brooklyn’s Clover Club and Owner of Manhattan’s Flatiron Lounge, the VIP Cocktail Experience creates the ultimate “bar” with cocktails by some of New York’s most loved and trendsetting destinations: Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog, Pouring Ribbons, The Library at The Public, The Nomad, Booker & Dax, PDT, Clover Club, Pegu Club, Flatiron Lounge, and Death & Co. Cocktails will be served in both Prospect Park’s Boathouse, a stunning historical building dating back to 1904 that overlooks the Lullwater and Lake, and in a tented venue in the Nethermead Meadow. Reiner will also be hosting cocktail demos throughout the weekend. VIP tickets include five drink tickets to the area’s cocktail bars for ticketholders who are 21+.
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Oh God, are they gonna ruin the park again this year? Last year’s festival left huge tire tracks in the wet ground and on the day of the event they blocked off paths that weren’t even anywhere near the event. I say Prospect Park is better off without this bombastic festival of hipster crap.