Having raged for months, the controversy over a mega concert planned in Ljubljana's central park has been resolved after Magnifico, the pop star at the centre of the storm, announced he will move the event to a golf course on the outskirts of the city.

"Here we are in the magical, romantic atmosphere of the Stanežiče Youth Golf Centre. There is a No.1 bus stop right behind me and it's all nearby," Magnifico said in a live announcement on his Facebook profile from Stanežiče on the northwestern outskirts of the capital on 25 July.

The decision comes after the national Nature Conservation Institute decided twice against giving its go-ahead for the concert in the Tivoli Park due to the risk the event would present for sensitive species in the park and the meadow where the 31 August concert was to be held.

Together with the wooded areas of the Rožnik and Šiška hills, Tivoli Park makes up a 459-hectare landscape park that is home to a variety of plants and animals, some of them endangered species.

Magnifico thanked his fans for understanding and support and to the Ljubljana city authorities and Mayor Zoran Janković in particular, as well as to the local residents, firefighters and the rugby club, which has its premises next to the youth golf centre, which is owned by the Ljubljana municipality.

"As far as I'm concerned come tonight, but to Stanežiče," he said in reference to the title of his 30th career anniversary concert and the refrain line of one of his popular songs Come to Tivoli Tonight. More than 13,000 tickets for the event have been sold.

The controversy about the original plans for the concert pitted environmentalists and civic groups against Magnifico fans and supporters, including the influential Ljubljana mayor, who is a friend of Magnifico.

One of the most vocal opponents of the concert, the Youth for Climate Justice addressed a public letter to Magnifico in late May, signed by 130 landscape architects, biologists, urban planners, artists and people enjoying the park, urging him to pick some other location for his concert.

In a decision largely interpreted as being a way to bypass the Nature Conservation Institute's denial of the permit for the concert, the Ljubljana city council amended rules governing procedures for public events in the Tivoli, Rožnik and Šiška Regional Park in early July to specify five locations at which public events can be held in the park, including the one meant to host Magnifico's concert.

In response, the green party Vesna and a group of citizens filed for a municipal referendum on the new rules.