IT appears to be business as usual for the teams behind the Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience event in April, with organisers pivoting quickly to focus on the new site at The Briars community forest dog park.
Signs on the gate block people from using the dog park so that infrastructure upgrades and decorative installations can be completed by the event’s start on 6 April.
The advertising spin of the event remains unchanged, tempting audiences with the line that it will be a “nighttime woodland trail experience filled with magical creatures and wizarding wonders from the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films”.
Apart from the deal not yet being sealed by an official letter from Warner Bros confirming the site change, those opposed to the wildlife sanctuary being originally chosen as the event site are celebrating the organisers’ change of heart.
The site change was prompted by a global backlash that threatened to harm the Harry Potter brand and was enough for global entertainment giants Warners Bros and Fever Entertainment to rethink their choice – with approval from Mornington Peninsula Shire – of using a wildlife sanctuary.
Community group Save Briars Sanctuary (SBS) was behind a national and international protest campaign calling on organisers to relocate the event away from the sanctuary.
Its petition attracted more than 22,000 signatures and the campaign gained support from the political parties, environmental groups and wildlife carers, in Australia and abroad, and the group wrote directly to Warner Bros.
In a welcome move, on 8 February the group received an email from the senior vice-president of Warner Bros. Discovery Global Themed Entertainment, Peter van Roden, saying the companies were “reevaluating the current location of Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience in The Briars at Mount Martha”.
The council then scheduled an extraordinary meeting to inform the community of the “joint” decision to relocate the event to the community forest dog park within The Briars.
Responding to a question during the meeting by Cr Sarah Race about the “very big dog community” on the peninsula, CEO John Baker said dog walkers would be accommodated at the public golf course in Mount Martha during the Harry Potter event, and “other dog walking” options were being investigated.
A release from Save Briars Sanctuary stated: “The decision to relocate Harry Potter is a significant achievement and we are relieved that the wildlife will now be safe. However, the seeming lack of scrutiny when approving the largest event in the history of the Mornington Peninsula is alarming. Especially when the location is a special and precious ecosystem. Our wildlife should never be put at risk for profit.”
A spokesperson for the group said it was looking forward to the shire’s promised review of its processes and hoped that the shire “engages with the community during and after the examination”.