The Great GoogaMooga is not coming back to Prospect Park. Where should it go?

Remember when you first heard about The Great GoogaMooga. And you were like, "Oh, wow, that sounds kinda awesome. And holy shit, it's going to be right in Prospect Park! How easy and convient for me. I must get tickets!" And then you tried to get tickets, but it was a total fucking shitshow. Until you finally got tickets and you went and it was even more of a clusterfuck. And ever after organizers gave all the ExtraMooga ticket holders refunds, you were still like, "meh." But somehow you didn't learn your lesson and you went back the next year and stood in-line waiting in the rain for almost an hour before they cancelled the event on you. And then on the walk back home you got all these emails and tweets from GoogaMooga on your phone saying "Things are still on and we have plenty of tickets ready! Come down to Prospect Park!" So you walked back and they were still like, "Oops sorry we're totally still cancelled even though we said rain or shine. Oh and ps we're not paying any of our vendors for all their lost food. Sucks to be them!" And then they left and the park was totally destroyed? And those who actually got to go said it sucked anyway. Remember all that?

Yeah. What a mess.

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GoogaMooga 2013: Less Shitty Than GoogaMooga 2012

Oh, GoogaMooga. Thou hath been dubbed "Great" & thou hath been highly-anticipated for two years running now & thou hath now twice befuddled those expecting to be wowed by your bounty of food & music. Should we hate you? Should we love you? Should we think of you as that one crazy friend who we have that crazy night out with once every year but who we definitely don't need to hang out with any other weekend? 

Last year, your inaugural edition started off as an absolute shitshow, with a first day that saw vendors running out of food and festival-goers bereft of working ATMs & cell-phone service and a general air of anger & incivility. After that much-maligned first day, you worked through most of your first-day hiccups, er...belches & things ran smoother on the second day. Sure two full days with tens of thousands of oft-drunken people trampling across the Prospect Park grounds left a definite impact but, in the end, you gave ticket holders a refund & in doing so, acknowledged your awfulness. Since money makes the world go round, 'twas a very grown-up step for such a young festival.

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GOOGA MOOGA CANCELED TODAY

NYC Parks Dept, Prospect Park Alliance & #Googamooga have canceled today's event in the interest of safety & prevention of damage to park

— Great GoogaMooga (@GoogaMooga) May 19, 2013

No Googa Mooga today [Sad Trombone]. 

Man, is someone out there sticking pins into a Googa Mooga vodoo doll or what? Seems like this festival just can't catch a break. 

You can follow their Twitter feed for continued updates. I see that they are fully refunding all VIP tix for today, though I don't see any mention of what's up for regular ticket holders? There's also some bitching that only an hour before they canceled the whole shebang, they were still trying to sell tix: 

@googamooga yet you still emailed people to sell more tickets for today only an hour before cancelation? Not cool. twitter.com/chrispetescia/…

— Chris Petescia (@chrispetescia) May 19, 2013

Bummer all around, I guess. On a scale of 1-10, how pissed are all you guys?

Who Handed Out These Hilarious Fake Menus At GoogaMooga Over the Weekend?

OK guys, I know we did a LOT of coverage on GoogaMooga and its aftermath, so I promise that this is the last of the GoogaMooga talk... for now.  I just couldn't pass this one up. A FiPS reader just sent us a copy of this presumably faux menu, which she claims was handed out by some random dudes as people exited The GoogaMooga experience this past weekend. I can't read one thing on this menu without peeing a little. It's so funny. I also missed out on the Googa experience this past weekend, so I have NO IDEA who made these. Did you get one? Do you know who made them? Can we please give these people a key to Brooklyn? 

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Get to Know Your GoogaMooga Gurus: Tom Colicchio

Photo via ZagatBuzz

You've all been preparing for the food celebration at this weekend's Great GoogaMooga, right? Whether said preparation involves breaking out the stretchy pants or expanding your palettes, next Saturday and Sunday will prove to be a food festival of Empire State proportions. For fuck's sake, with an event that's being promoted as an "amusement park of food and drink," you're bound to end up broke, full, and slightly nauseated.

And did you know that there's an actual GoogaMooga "Guru Council?" The members are described as "culinary leaders who embody the spirit and community of GoogaMooga. They have generously shared their talent, ideas and playlists." The Guru Council is a real Who's Who of the New York Foodie Scene, so I'm going to help you get to know one of them a little bit better.

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