Dirt Dog Receives A C&D From The BBC Following “Bluey Day!”

This past Mother’s Day weekend saw the now infamous Bluey Day! event at the Dirt Dog restaurant and bar in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event, advertised as a fun day for kids to come and meet the popular character of Bluey, ended in disaster as a large crowd of people poured into an unsuspecting staff.

Over 3,000 people RSVP’d on the Facebook page advertising the event. What was originally meant to be 50 – 60 people ended up being dozens of families overcrowding the location. Many parents were angry, while the children were either disappointed or upset. Instead of Bluey, they got a tall man with a beard in a Bluey onesie. The event was seen as the North American equivalent to the “Willie’s Chocolate Experience” event in Scotland earlier this year, albeit the event was free and didn’t charge for admission.

Following the event, the restaurant apologized for not meeting expectations and planned to use the event as a learning experience for future events. They even recently announced plans for a make-up event featuring the “Real Bluey” scheduled for June 9th.

Unfortunately, those plans have been halted as the Dirt Dog restaurant has received a Cease & Desist letter from BBC Studios, the show’s licensee. The C&D order was specifically filed to prevent any harm or confusion to BBC Studios, Ludo Studio, or the Bluey I.P. The order states:

“BBC Studios has learned from press reports that you held a prior Bluey Day event that ‘descended into chaos’ with crying children and disappointed parents. To prevent all further harm, BBC Studios demands that you cancel all planned Bluey Day events and that you immediately and permanently cease offering any services or products in connection with or that use in any way the Bluey mark, any confusingly similar variations thereof, and/or any images of characters that are the exclusive intellectual property of Ludo Studio.”

Following the C&D order Dirt Dog was forced to make the following announcement:

“With a heavy heart, we have to announce that we can no longer host a Bluey event for our community, the staff from Las Vegas to Los Angeles are completely disappointed with this news. We only had the purest intentions to give back to those around us. We sincerely hope the Vegas community will forgive us and continue to support us as we are still pushing forward in our community involvement.”

“We will continue to host more family events to give back to the families that continue to support us. We will be hosting our Farmers Market for our local entrepreneurs on June 29, 2024, including a coloring station for kids, carnival games, free slushies and so much more. We hope everyone affected by the previous event will come out and support small businesses in our community.”

Dirt Dog also says that they will have a new “Family Day” event on June 29th at their Rainbow location. This event will feature carnival games, free refreshments, face painting, and, most importantly, a different event mascot.

What do you think? Was BBC right to send a C&D order over the “Bluey Day!” disaster? Or should they have allowed Dirt Dog to make amends? Let us know your thoughts.

Sources: Fox, WEAU