Googa Mooga Festival preview

This weekend marks the arrival of the much-anticipated Googa Mooga Festival in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. While residents are both excited and terrified of this large-scale event, one thing's for sure, everyone is excited not to have to read or say the name "Googa Mooga" after this event is over.

Despite its awkward name, this festival is certainly nothing but ambitious in its pursuits to bring some of the biggest names in food and music together in one place.

With just a quick look at the numbers: 75 food vendors, 35 Brewers, 30 Wine Makers, and 20 live music performances, it's a lot to take in. The festival is clearly divided into two different experiences. There's the general passes that give you access to free music and food vendors and then there's the "Extra Mooga", which includes separate paid access to exclusive chef tastings, demonstrations and talks about the restaurant industry. So attendees get to decide if they want to indulge in the beer spilling, flailing concert scene, or the pinky raising, CSA discussing food scene. Either way, we've broken down the highlights of each day to get the most out of the Mooga.

Saturday

Philly legends, The Roots will be getting the crowds moving as the headliners on Saturday. Expect a diverse crowd of ?uestlove devotees. For the more mature crowd, there's the Preservation Hall Jazz Band up from their native New Orleans to showing all the Yankees what a live jazz show is all about. And for the youngins, DFA's dance masters Holy Ghost will be performing their only show announced for this summer.

As for the food highlights, stop by the food vendor tent to see what Coolio is cooking up, then head over to hear the panel "Noshing With" featuring Ruth Reichl (former Editor in Chief of Gourmet Magazine), David Chang (Momofuku), Aziz Ansari and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem.  

Round things out with the aptly titled, "Mmmmm Beer and Bacon", and taste the specialties of Brooklyn Brewery's Garrett Oliver and ham specialist Alan Benton, featuring special guest, comedienne Amy Schumer. And speaking of comedy, podcast fans should check out the live taping of Marc Maron's WTF podcast/show with special guests Niki Russ (Russ and Daughters), Chuck Klosterman, John Hodgeman and Joe Mande.

Sunday

Sunday is set to be the biggest draw, not only because of the musical acts, but also because people want to see the kinks of the festival worked out by the second day. The headliners include kings of yacht rock, Hall & Oates as well as the New York-based, disco orchestra Escort, who have already made a name for themselves with their high energy live shows. And continuing on the soul train, is a performance by the equally large collective, Fitz & Tantrums.

Setting the tone for Sunday's festivities are culinary all-stars Anthony Bourdain as well as a Harlem Renaissance Party by chef Marcus Samuelsson. Bourdain will probably be talking food and snacking on the foot in his mouth at some point, while Samuelsson will be sharing his signature cocktails and comfort food from his famed Harlem restaurant, Red Rooster. He will be joined by Grammy nominee trumpeter, Christian Scott, who will be providing the live music accompaniment. And if the day's weather isn't hot enough, there's always the free Hot Sauce Takedown Cook-off to round out the evening.

Check in tomorrow for our live review of the festival and complete weekend coverage.