an interview w/ Great GoogaMooga co-founder Kerry Black (about this weekend's fest in Prospect Park)

Superfly presents the Great GoogaMooga this weekend (5/19-5/20) in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. As can you can see by the posted schedule, live music will be happening on two stages concurrently with food demonstrations, comedy and other entertainment while food is being served all around. Don’t have one of the free tickets, and aren’t planning on buying one either? Probably best to not show up then. At least that’s what festival co-founder Kerry Black of Superfly told us in the interview that you can read in full below…

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BV: Being that this is BrooklynVegan, I have to start out by asking… how are the vegan offerings looking at this thing? (I’m a little worried with Anthony Bourdain as one of your collaborators!).

Kerry Black: There will indeed be vegan options. I am a pretty massive meat eater (wait until you see Hamageddon!) but I am still amped to try a bunch of the vegetarian/vegan offerings like the Rosa Pie from Co.

You are the people behind Bonnaroo, Outside Lands and Jazzfest. They’re all music festivals that serve food. Why do a food festival with a side of music this time?

We are following our passions. We started in music for that reason and food was another area that is exciting for us. And the food world has obviously been exploding in recent years. We also have a high end food and wine component at Outside Lands and saw a lot of success there. Ultimately we wanted to do a festival that brought the best of all facets together. Why do you have to go to a concert and eat hamburgers that taste like cardboard or go to a restaurant and listen to muzak? NYC has the best of everything, let’s emulate that!

And how did you end up in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY?

The scene in Brooklyn perfectly represents the vibe that we are going for with this festival. It is a hotbed of creativity and most importantly has tons of great food, drink and music options.

About how many people are you expecting this weekend?

40k per day

The free tickets were obviously hard to come by. Was the demand larger than you anticipated? (Maybe not, since you thought to have tickets to a free event in the first place?)

We have been blown away by the interest in this festival. With what we believe to be a very strong offering, we did expect the tickets to be popular though.

What are my chances of getting in if I show up with no ticket and less than $250 cash on Saturday or Sunday?

Zero

Considering the demand for the cheap seats, all the action on Craigslist, and the huge difference in price for the ($267 per person per day) ExtraMooga tickets, have you thought about meeting people half way next time and offering a “not so cheap but still cheap” ticket?

We will of course evaluate of everything the happened this year and work on making things better next year. We expect to learn a lot this weekend!

Speaking of the ExtraMooga tickets, does having one of those guarantee entry into all the ExtraMooga offerings?

For the most part yes but a few of the venues do have smaller capacities that will be first come, first serve.

When I look at the music lineup I see a diversity of acts that not only will appeal to all ages and a wide audience, but who are cool and also proven entertainers with big sounds (and in many cases who can sell tickets). I’m especially impressed at your somewhat surreal decision to have NYC’s own Japanese comic book punk band Peelander-Z play just a couple of hours before the legendary, and nothing like Peelander-Z, Hall & Oates. How did you go about booking the music for the main stages?

We wanted to find a great mix of styles that catered to Brooklyn’s diversity & also wanted to have bands perform that had direct connections to the local Brooklyn community. And if you have ever heard Peelander-Z’s song “S.T.E.A.K.”, you must know they are perfect for a food event. They also played the after party at my wedding!

You’ve also managed to incorporate a lot of the NYC alt-comedy scene (if you want to call it that) into the party, though mainly just as part of ExtraMooga. The comedians, many of whom I’m guessing have also performed at Bonnaroo, include Brooklyn staples like (“Hot Tub” with) Kurt & Kristen, and extra big names like Patton Oswalt and notorious foodie Aziz Ansari….

One of the things we were trying to do with this festival was to do a new kind of food event. One that didn’t take itself too seriously and was about a fun shared experience for you…and your closest 40k buddies.

and I actually have no idea where I’m going with this, so let’s just end it here by asking… Anything else a music and comedy fan headed to Googa Mooga should know?

Don’t sleep on the art, lots of great stuff to see as you eat and listen!

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Thanks for taking the time Kerry.

We Barbarians were rececently added to the fest’s music lineup. The full schedule and more GoogaMooga info can be found at the fest’s website.