Return of the Great GoogaMooga

The Great GoogaMooga is returning to Prospect Park this weekend. Last year's festival drew 30,000 people and left Superfly, the entertainment production and marketing agency that runs the event, scurrying to keep up. Festival goers had a laundry list of complaints last year, but the team has reworked the format with hopes to avoid making the same blunders. The Googa website notes, "It’s fair to say we learned a lot last year. We’re changing, adding, tweaking, building—to make this year’s festival better for you in every way."

This year's festival launches Friday, with a Kickoff Concert featuring Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Flaming Lips, and the Darkness. Tickets for that event are $55, but the rest of GoogaMooga is free (tickets were granted to those who registered on a lottery basis). There will be ten more fod stalls than last year, making a total of 85 contributing restuarants and, unlike last year, most of these vendors will have bottled water for sale. Guests are also allowed to bring their own now. Temporary cell towers will be brought in to ensure reliable phone service, so guests will be able to go nuts on Instagram.

Fences have gone up around the perimeter of the festival grounds, but we got in yesterday to snap a few pictures of GoogaMooga Part II coming together in Prospect Park.

The beginning of the main stretch of food stalls on the east side of the lawn.

A row of stalls west of the main stage.

One of the beer tents on the north side of the lawn.

A lot of the boards displaying what's for sale are still untouched from last year's event.

Wine boards before they get hung up in the wine tent.

Looking east along the top part of the main lawn.

Looking west.

The stage.

The calm before the storm.

The Kickoff Concert runs from 4pm to 10pm this Friday and regular ticket holders will be able to get their Googa on between 11am and 8pm Saturday and Sunday.