This happened today out in Brooklyn.
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
Several East Village restaurants were part of the food lineup... a little fall out so far...
In life, there are fiascos, and then there is @googamooga. #cursed
— Northern Spy Food Co (@northernspyfood) May 19, 2013
We checked in with Northern Spy co-owner Christophe Hille about GoogaMooga. He figures the restaurant on East 12th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B lost in the ballpark of $10,000 for the event. They prepped 3,200 sandwiches to sell at their stand. Given yesterday's crap weather and today's cancellation, they sold less than 800. (Based on last year's demand, GoogaMooga officials suggested prepping 4,000.)
If Park officials allow trucks onto the soggy fields today, then City Harvest may take some of the unused food. Hille also plans on providing some of the leftovers to Trinity Church's Services and Food for the Homeless (SAFH) at East 9th Street and Avenue B. (He is a SAFH board member.)
"All vendors are in the same boat, so I'm not feeling any worse about [this] than everyone is," he said via Twitter.
After Sandy, Hille and his staff cooked up all their remaining food and gave it away to neighbors on East 12th Street.
Meanwhile, Luke's Lobster on East 7th Street is offering this deal...
$2 OFF lobster rolls TODAY in all NYC stores! @googamooga canceled today so we have a ton of extra beautiful lobster. Go! #BESTRAINYDAYEVER
— Luke's Lobster (@LukesLobster) May 19, 2013
they don't have insurance or anything in their contract about this? seems unprofessional of googamooga and risky for the restaurants!
ReplyDeletewhat a shit show. Its weird but I saw something on twitter saying that James Murphy bailed on his concert, and then like an hour later I heard the whole thing was cancelled. Just seems like strange timing. I hate food festivals, and being one of the biggest festival, I really hate this one. It will be interesting to watch this story.
ReplyDeleteHate is good.
ReplyDeleteThe whole idea is repulsive. There are so many people around the world in need of food and fresh water and these food fetishists are hosting self-indulgent festivals? I hope they donate all of this uneaten food to charities or soup kitchens.
ReplyDeleteFood and Music don't necessarily complement each other - I'm giving this a miss
ReplyDeletewow 13$ for a Lobster roll... a deal? no.
ReplyDeleteI’m sorry about our local restaurants that lost money at this Great GoogaMooga event but this NY times article (read the comments as well) lays out quite graphically the privatization of everything in the city via Bloomberg’s reign of horror. I am actually shocked that this article appeared in the NY Times. Count on CQ to continue this crap.
ReplyDeletehttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/a-curious-costbenefit-analysis-of-a-park-fund-raiser/?ref=nyregion
@anon 8:00PM: There will always be starving people in the world. Does that mean we should stop everything and never do anything fun?
ReplyDelete"Does that mean we should stop everything and never do anything fun?"
ReplyDelete-- now that is just nonsense. Why so black or white? There's way more middle ground. How about just be a lil' less self-centered, just not all the time, and maybe give back somehow and then go have fun. Gosh, a-hole absolute comments like this really bug me.
What does being self-centered have to do with a food/music festival? Because you paid to go? Who's to say that people that are at the festival or vendors don't volunteer or give back in some way.
ReplyDeleteThere is enough food in the world to elimate all poverty and hunger, there is just no fair distribution of it. To say "there will always be starving people in the world" is inaccurate and self-serving.
ReplyDeleteNYC is flooded with this stupid vapid consumerism, it's all about $ and me me me, not about helping others THE WAY WE SHOULD BE DOING.
you know how many businesses and restaurants throw all their food away everynight bc they are too lazy to donate it to city harvest? it's a f*cking disgrace.
They should chagre a "homeless tax" to all the rich tourists so that their visits will help our needy citizens!
If you don't think $13 is a good price for a lobster roll you haven't ever bought a lobster roll.
ReplyDelete@anon 2:42 I've bought plenty of lobster rolls, but paying $13 for any sandwich is just plain stupid (before you go there, I am complicit in my own stupidity). Cheaper to just buy the meat by the pound and make your own. Lobster salad is ridiculously easy to make.
ReplyDelete