Great GoogaMooga will not return to Prospect Park

The Great GoogaMooga will not be returning to Prospect Park for a third year, following two years of repeated damage to the park’s lawn, said Parks Department officials.

This year’s event caused “more damage than we thought,” Betsy Smith, head of revenue and marketing for the Parks Department, told NYC councilmembers at an oversight hearing on Thursday, October 3. The hearing was called “The Private Use of Public Parkland: Do Large Scale Events Benefit Parks.”

The three-day music and food festival launched in Summer of 2012 and became known for its combination of interesting events, loud music from popular bands, long lines for food, and destruction of parkland and animal habitats.

The city seems to have gotten involved after deciding that the benefit of having a weekend-long “amusement park” did not outweigh the extra costs of security, park maintenance, and other logistics.

The nonprofit Prospect Park Alliance received $75,000 for this year’s event– $25,000 less than in 2012.

It is unknown where the event would move to in 2014, should it return.

The event’s organizers, Superfly Presents, responded to the city’s announcement that they “understand and support the [department’s] decision, and we look forward to continuing a great working relationship with them, both on this project and others in the future.

“We thank the Prospect Park Alliance for the opportunity to bring GoogaMooga to Prospect Park the past two years, and we pledge our continued support for their mission to make the park an enjoyable and world-class public space,” they continued. “We cannot confirm future plans at this time.”