The Grand Googa

Riding in Prospect Park on the 21st of May, on a  rainy, cool and  lush Spring day I passed the most beautiful Nethermead and some of what I saw is in the pics. 

  A man was working with a big hose and a vacuum truck to clean waste from toilets and beyond and around him, more impact of GoogaMooga, a two day giant food, music and waste festival. Here's a photo of the crowd of foodies:

http://media.timeout.com/images/100453763/660/370/image.jpg

The production company, Superfly Productions, a Manhattan based "Entertainment and Marketing Company" that also does branding,  had this to say about their intentions and positive effects to Time Out New York:  "... the event’s positive economic impact...the booths and signs were built by Brooklyn-based artisans. We also gave non-profit organizations Just Food, Edible Schoolyard and the Prospect Park Alliance a platform to connect with the audience at the event. And GoogaMooga exposed New Yorkers to the Nethermead, an underused area of Prospect Park."

And from their website:"On May 19th & 20th, 2012, Brooklyn’s historic Prospect Park will transform into an amusement park of food and drink, The Great GoogaMooga. Approximately 75 food vendors, 35 brewers, 30 winemakers and 20 live music performances will be on hand to help us relish some of life’s greatest pleasures—gathering with friends and neighbors to eat, drink, talk, laugh, dance, linger and just . . . be together."

Superfly claims to support causes like sustainable farming, nutrition education and parkland preservation.

 So, apparently, the deal with GoogaMooga is that a small elite group of wealthy and  influential people from The Prospect Park Alliance, with the unquestioning support of the Parks Department took it on themselves to rent the commons, the people's park, to a for-profit business. I couldn't get a response to my question about the revenue earned from this rental either from City Parks or from the Prospect Park Alliance but I think it's realistic to assume that everyone made money. For the producers this size of beautiful park space and its location, as well as the fact that this was a non-commercial (not-for-profit) rental, which means far cheaper than any comparably sized commercial space, were the most important factors in making this a success. The marketing people at Superfly inadvertently revealed the sell in their spin by referring to the Nethermead as an "underused" area. Allow me to repeat that..."underused"! This statement is just plain arrogant. Whenever I go to the Nethermead I see families gathering, children playing, dogs running and their humans conversing, soccer games for kids with their parents coaching, everyone enjoying the open space, the air, the sun, the green. People take care of the park too. They don't damage or destroy anything, they generally clean up after themselves and they respect the public space. Does anyone who enjoys this park think of any of it as "underused"?  Without a doubt the callous implicit meaning of this statement is "underdeveloped commercially." 

Overall the vendors I spoke with said the event was a success for them, in other words good business. The fees for space and the percentage kickbacks to producers from revenues were "reasonable." In the end, Superfly decided to reimburse all ticket purchases, $250 a day,  because of negative reactions but I'm sure that the loss was covered by earnings from the large volume of pretty high-priced food sold. It's also noted that this event was an exploratory venture for them the results of which will mean a streamlined reprise. So it appears that their's is a sly public relations spin that makes them seem socially responsible and not motivated by profit. They want to appear to be providing a novel grass roots eating experience to appeal to the appetites of New York residents.

Just to let you see what socially responsible marketers did in collusion with pragmatic managers of the public trust, take a look at the pictures of the Nethermead taken a week after the generous producers left the park.  

  This is part of the wreck they left, not too dissimilar from frackers. These areas in the photos of the aftermath used to be all grass. I have half a dozen more photos of this mess, but need to keep it simple.

Superfly intends to return next year. It seems that there are enough gourmands in New York City who have no qualms about indulging their love of food and of being outside while they lay waste to public land, land  generously rented by our city at the behest of an elite group who have charged themselves with the goals of  "maintaining the financial well-being and growth of the organization and promoting Prospect Park’s interests", this taken from the Prospect Park Alliance website.  Public Enemy's words are prophetic- "don't believe the hype."  I for one unfortunately believe until it slaps me.

My first impressions  of this event:  the man cleaning row upon row of toilets, the Prospect Park staff who said that they couldn't afford to buy any food nor were they offered discounts,  and the condition of the Nethermead come closest to the underlying  truth of this event regarding preservation, sustainability and life's pleasures. Businesses are always packed together with other businesses on busy streets in every business district everywhere where there is only more business and no green space, let alone sunshine and public toilets. It's the grid. But now businesses want to come into perfectly beautiful, preserved, natural environments with their manufactured images and pack them with the same things that make the grid: machines, marketing, masses of consumer units enjoying an alternative bang for the buck. This is only a new skin for an old ceremony. Money is still highlighted in bold on the dotted line, and what's infuriating though not surprising given the constant shift to privatization is that this venture trampled not only on a beautiful public park but also on the public trust. The overseers of public space sold out. That's the truth.

 And regarding preservation, a stated concern of the producers, I asked  about  what happened to the left over food but got no answers. Also local artisans erected several big structures for the event, buildings big and solid enough to house people. What happened to all the raw materials used? Everybody was too busy cleaning the human waste to answer.