Event planning isn’t easy and don’t let anyone tell you it is. It’s so easy for things to go off the rails when you have to try and account for unknown variables. If it’s a public event you can guess how many people will show up but you can always over and under estimate that. Plans can change, attempts at organization can fail, basically anything and everything can potentially go wrong. If you don’t know this for yourself, you can just ask the people at the Las Vegas Dirt Dog restaurant about their Bluey Day event.
On May 11th, one of the Dirt Dog locations in Las Vegas decided to hold a four-hour event that allowed families to come in to watch a marathon of “Bluey“ episodes. There was face painting, “Bluey” themed treats, and according an ad for the event, a meet & greet with “Bluey & Friends.)
This did not go according to plan. In fact, it’s hard to know what the plan even was to begin with based on what happened.
Unprepared for Popularity
For starters, the restaurant staff didn’t understand just how popular Bluey is. A spokesperson for the restaurant basically said they never expected to get a turnout that measured in thousands. They thought they’d get, “maybe 50 to 60 people,” which is just, you know, slightly off from the approximately 3,000 who showed an interest in the event on the Facebook page for the business.
Even if it had just been the “50 to 60 people” who showed up, it’s hard to imagine they would’ve been pleased with what was on offer. This wasn’t exactly some kind of licensed sponsorship deal with international distributor, Disney. The restaurant staff did home-made blue cupcakes and their own volunteer face painting. One staff member dress up as the titular cartoon character by wearing a Bluey pajama onesie. Or, to quote a girl named Sophia who saw the costumed Bluey, “We could see his beard.”
Some people drew immediate comparisons to Glasgow’s disastrous Wonka event. Both events made the mistake of utilizing a big name, but underdelivering.
It does suck for the kids and families that were looking forward to this event who were let down. We do hope this becomes something people will look back on it and laugh. “Remember that time we went to ‘Bluey Day’ and you could see the beard on the guy playing Bluey?”
If everything went perfectly, it wouldn’t be nearly as memorable as this bizarre, Kafkaesque mess.
