If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I attended last year’s Great GoogaMooga and had an absolutely fabulous time. Well folks, the combination music-food-drink festival is back in Prospect Park this coming May 17-19 and it’s looking greater than ever. They’re kicking things off with a Friday night concert featuring the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Flaming Lips, and The Darkness, then continuing the tradition from last year with a weekend of Baccanalian festivities that’s free to attend: just pay-as-you-go for food and drink from over 85 food vendors, 75 breweries, and 100 wine makers. Here’s a taste of the food you’ll get to enjoy:
Indeed, the 85 food vendors they’re bringing together truly are “Great,” from Taiwanese steamed buns of Baohaus to Roberta’s wood-fired pizza to adventurous hot dogs of Crif Dogs to buttery Luke’s Lobster rolls to unique soft serve concoctions of Big Gay Ice Cream to new Filipino standouts Jeepney and Pig and Khao to the pupusas of the Red Hook Ballfields to the meaty deliciousness of Pat Lafrieda, just to name a few. The Saturday and Sunday food festivals also have plenty of music to entertain the crowd with two stages featuring likes of Matt & Kim, De la Soul, Sharon Jones and the Dap-kings, and Cults, among others, so you can always dance off the food you’re bound to stuff your face with.
What makes this festival great is that it brings so many of NYC’s great restaurants and vendors to one place. There’s no need to take the L train or go from one end of Manhattan to another – instead you can hop from one stall to the next and get a culinary tour of the best of NYC, plus visitors from Boston and LA like Toro and Umami Burger. While the festival had its share of hiccups in it’s first year, we can only assume they have course corrected after the backlash they received. They even explain why 2013 is a “new, improved recipe” on their website, so my recommendation is to mark your calendars and make sure you get a ticket for what looks to be a fun-filled almost-summer day.
The Friday night kick-off concert goes for $49.50 and will be on sale here starting March 28 at noon, and also includes guaranteed admission for either Saturday or Sunday. If you’d prefer to go the free route, you’re not guaranteed a ticket, but you can try your luck in snagging a free ticket to Saturday or Sunday by registering here from April 1-3 for a chance at being one of the 30,000 randomly selected registrants. There’s also a $79.50 VIP Cocktail option for all you lushes out there, which gets you 5 artisanal cocktails from the mixmasters at Booker & Dax, The Dead Rabbit, PDT and more.
So do what you gotta do to get yourself to this year’s The Great GoogaMooga, and if you need more persuasion, just check out the epic food lineup below:
Food Vendors at Great GoogaMooga 2013
- Back Forty
- Baconland
- Baked
- Baohaus
- Beecher’s Handmade Cheese
- The Big Banana
- Big Gay Ice Cream
- Blue Marble Ice Cream
- Bromberg Bros. Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken
- Brindle Room
- Brooklyn Soda Works
- Burger Joint
- Calexico
- Caracas Rockaway
- Char No. 4
- Colicchio & Sons
- Craftbar
- Crawfish Monica®
- Crif Dogs
- Dbgb Kitchen And Bar
- Dinosaur Bar-b-que
- Dirty Bird To Go
- Do Or Dine
- Dough
- Dumont Burger & Shakes
- Eataly
- Fatty Cue
- Free Bread
- Gwynnett St.
- Hill Country Barbeque Market
- James
- Jeepney
- Jeffrey’s Grocery
- Joe
- Leonard
- Juice Press
- Kasadela
- La Newyorkina
- Landhaus
- Joe’s Pub
- Liddabit Sweets
- Little Muenster
- The Lobster Place
- Luke’s Lobster
- M. Wells
- Maison Premiere
- Max Brenner Chocolate Bar
- The Meat Hook
- Tms-the Meatball Shop
- Melt Bakery
- Mile End Delicatessen
- Mille-feuille Bakery
- Miss Lily’s
- Momofuku Milk Bar
- Mother-in-law’s Kimchi
- Motorino Pizza
- Nom Wah Tea Parlor
- Northern Spy Food Co.
- Num Pang Sandwich Shop
- Pat Lafrieda Meat Purveyors
- People’s Pops
- Pig And Khao
- Pizzamoto
- PokPokPhat Thai
- Porchetta
- Pork Slope
- Prospect
- Red Hook El OlomegaPupusas
- Red Hook Lobster Pound
- Rippers
- Roberta’s Pizza
- Robicelli’s
- Rosemary’s Enoteca And Trattoria
- Salvation Taco
- SaxelbyCheesemongers
- Seersucker
- Slantshack Jerky
- South Brooklyn Pizza
- Sun In Bloom
- TíaPol
- Third Rail Coffee
- Toro (Boston)
- Umami Burger
- Vinegar Hill House
- Willow Road
- Wooly’s Ice
