googamooga Archives

Update: Googa Mooga just announced they are releasing more General Admission & VIP tickets today at the box office. So if you can handle a little rain and want to get in, head on over to Prospect Park. Kool & The Gang is headlining today guys!

Update #2: Nevermind. They just cancelled Googa Mooga over a little light rain. This really sucks for all the vendors, especially after a somewhat disappointing first two days. sorry that I didn’t have a chance to finish shooting it.

I’ll get to the food in a bit, but let me start by saying that attendance seemed WAAAAAYYYYYYYY low this year. From an attendee standpoint, this is a good thing, from a vendor standpoint, this is really bad. And next year means far fewer vendors will be inclined to have a booth there, even though they added additional vendors this year over last – an issue they thought would help remedy the problems of long wait times this year. This clearly wasn’t really an issue last year.

From an attendee’s point of view, this event was much improved over last year. The setup on the right of the main stage was set up differently. They moved the row further from the stage and put a row behind the other. Last year, lines for food ran into the stage area where people were watching the bands play. They were unruly and ran wildly through the field. This year, that was better, again for attendee’s. For vendors on that side, they seemed a little lost in the stagger especially over the vendors on the opposite side which was setup exactly as it was last year. Still though, the crowd was incredibly thin this year. Perhaps because of the weather? Perhaps because of the added day? Perhaps because the venue cut attendance from last year?

But from what some of the vendors were saying Saturday, Friday’s turnout wasn’t really that great either. At least not from a food sales perspective. Saturday was ok, but not great. Not what they were told to anticipate for by event organizers. On vendor I spoke with told me that the organizers told them to prepare for 4000 units to be sold over the 3 days. By the end of the second day they’d only sold a little over 1000 units. And this was a vendor that had far more press for the event than most other vendors.

The top photo was taken from 2012. Lines stayed pretty swamped all day long. The bottom photo is the line (or lack there of) from this year.

I’m not saying that this event is only successful if starving masses have to stand in line for 2 hours for a hot dog. But what I am saying is that there is nothing wrong with a little wait. 20 minutes wouldn’t kill anyone and hell, how long would you wait on a Saturday afternoon for a table at brunch?

I’d like to chalk it up to just being a shitty day and hopefully Sunday would be better. The forecast for Sunday, though, is worse that what today was. It would be nice however, seeing as GoogaMooga obviously has everything buttoned up quite nicely this year, if they’d would open up General Admission to more people tomorrow. I didn’t win tickets during the lottery, however, my girlfriend did. So I’m curious how many others out there they turned down. I’m sure the vendors are curious too.

More importantly, I want to know what the deal is with this guy?

From the outside looking in, this festival was pretty great today. The music was non stop on two large stages, there was no wait for most places, the bathrooms were slightly cleaner and there was plenty of room to move around. Here are some highlights from day 1.

The Mamacita Arepa from Caracas

Whiskey Bread from Gwynnett St.

The Egg Begley Jr.

Grilled Lobster at The Lobster Place

Jerk Chicken from Ms. Lily

Arancini from Eataly

Ribs from Joe’s Pub

Googa Mooga Crowd

Pokr Belly Tacos from Colicchio & Son’s

Lamb at Back Forty

Backstage at Collicho & Son’s

Justin Warner & George McNeese

Foie gras jelly doughnut from Do or Dine

Chef at Maison Premiere

Grilled Oysters at Maison Premiere

Rabbit & Snail Paella

BBQ at Googa Mooga

Pork & Cheese Sausage from DBGB

Duck Corndog from James

Garbanzo, Brussels Sprouts & Cabbage from Rosemarys

Kimchi with Cold Sesame Soba Noodles

Lobster Roll from Luke’s Lobster

Foie Gras Hot Dog from Prospect

Was Googa Mooga a bust? Was Extra Mooga worth it? Was this whole thing overhyped and did it under-deliver? Well, the internets tell us conflicting stories, and I guess its up to the individual to decide. Here’s a blow by blow of my experiences, and especially of the Extra Mooga.

GM was massive – bigger than I thought it was going to be and probably bigger than even the organizers or vendors expected considering the first day hurdles that the organizers seemed to try to quickly remedy. The first day was very difficult because there wasn’t much clear about where to go and what to do and I had missed the press event that probably clarified a lot of those questions for me. But eventually I figured out how to get around and avoid the crowds and was able to get to shooting. I had EM tickets for Sunday, thanks to the awesome folks at Rubenstein, so I had to get the majority of the vendor shooting done on Saturday. My goal was to shoot every vendor, but seeing as it was only 3pm and vendors were running out of food, I had to pick and choose. I particularly frown upon the vendors that run out of food, most of them should know how these things go at this point and be well prepared, nah, over prepared. But yeah, whatever, there were so many vendors that there were still an incredible selection available. My biggest point of contention was that there was a serious lack of vegetarian options – everyone was doing meat, meat, meat, but there was no representation for the herbivores and omnivores among us – it would have been less of a deal if I wasn’t keeping the company of a vegetarian. Still though, it must be said, these vendors did such an amazing job keeping up. Here’s a look behind the scenes at what these guys did to keep the food coming.

cocktail preparation at the boathouse

not sure what they were, perhaps gin, lemonade, sea salt – amazing, whatever they were.

cooks preparing cranking out the Pat LaFrieda Burgers

You can’t eat just one

Pat LaFrieda – perhaps the most important butcher in NYC. His meat is amazing (let the jokes begin).

I dare you to not love Pat LaFrieda’s burgers!

LaFrieda slow cooked a cow overnight

LaFrieda slow cooked a cow overnight, here he’s cutting up the cow for Extra Mooga guests

Chef James Tracey working the grill cooking pork belly for Colicchio and Son’s.

Pork Belly at Colicchio and Son’s

The lines at El Olomega

This lady has been making pupusa’s for 20 years. El Olomega, you can find them out at Red Hook Ball Fields on the weekends and the lines aren’t nearly as long.

M. Wells – While a few might be put off by the fact that these guys are serving horse meat, they cannot be accused of offering mediocre cuisine. M. Wells has always been very inspiring with their menu. Can’t wait till they get a new spot!

Making a massive batch of Paella.

Paella

Extra Mooga Events and Entertainment
The big sell on the Extra Mooga is perhaps the events. I found that with the amazing lineup, it would be well worth the cost. I wasn’t there for the Saturday debacle, but it seemed like most of the problems were resolved come Sunday. My only complaint is that there was obviously time to stagger these events so I could attend more. I found it hard to get from one to the other in enough time. I really wanted to cover the John Dorey Oyster Shucking but by the time I got there, they were out of oysters. The final event, The Big Gay Ice Cream Disco was absolutely amazing. Patton Oswald, Tom Colicchio, and Eddie Huang were hilarious, and I always love seeing Bourdain!

The Extra Mooga Experience (with some extras)- The Great Googa Mooga - Brooklyn, NYC

John Dory Oyster Bar at The Boathouse

Entertainment during Kristen Shaal’s Hot Tub

John Oliver does standup

Liquid Brunch talk in the Spiegel Tent where we learned how to make brunch time cocktails from Julie Reiner of Clover Club and Allen Katz of The NY Distilling Company