Unfortunately for fans of The Block hoping to get an in-person look at this year’s houses, you are out of luck!
In a hard, but necessary decision, the annual public Open Day has been cancelled, with sources close to production revealing that there would be no way to safely put on such a huge public event in the likes of Phillip Island.
Speaking with TV Tonight, Executive Producer Julian Cress said fans would just have to appreciate the renovated properties through their television screens this year as a public Open Day was just “not possible.”
“Phillip Island has one bridge in and one bright out,” the long-running show producer shared.
“It’s not a place that you can do a big public event without an immense amount of planning and logistics.”
“Just ask anybody on Phillip Island what it’s like when they have the Moto GP. So it’s not possible for us to do a full public Open day like we’ve done previously,” he added.
Over the years, thousands of fans have descended on filming locations and queued hours in the wind, rain, and heat to walk through their favourite teams’ houses for themselves.
While a public Open Day was held in 2023 in Hampton East, it was cancelled in 2022 when filming took place in the country town of Gisborne for similar reasons to 2024.
Prior to that, no public Open Days took place on The Block in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.
Given The Block will be filmed in the regional community of Daylesford in 2025, it seems unlikely that a public Open Day will take place next year also.
But it’s not all bad news, with locals of Phillip Island set to be invited to a future open event in the weeks to come.
“We are planning to do a smaller event for our friends on the island who supported the show from the get-go, but, we can’t open it to people coming from around the country, because they just wouldn’t get on and off the island. Logistically, it would be very challenging,” Julian added.