Police were called to a Willy Wonka event in Glasgow, Scotland, after frustrated attendees demanded full refunds, the BBC reports.
The Willy Wonka event, titled Willy's Chocolate Experience, was hosted by a group called the House of Illuminati, an organization that — according to its official website — prides itself as a group “fueled by a passion for blending art, technology, and storytelling into unforgettable events” through meticulously crafted adventures, interactive galas, and avant-garde performances. Their Willy Wonka Experience was advertised as a “journey filled with wonderous creations and enchanting surprises at every turn.” As fate would have it, those once-enchanting surprises wound up manifesting as something more akin to something straight out of DashCon than the fantastical experience it was advertised as.
The event, which was suspected to use mock AI images to advertise what the event space would look like, charged visitors £35 (roughly $45) for what was promised as a weekend-long event that would take attendees 45 minutes to an hour to fully experience. In reality, Willy's Chocolate Experience was reportedly a five-minute walk through with a single bouncy castle, a rainbow arch, and a bunch of cafeteria tables scattered about an abandoned warehouse. According to the BBC, House of Illuminati canceled the Wonka midway through its opening day due to customer complaints, leading many of its scorned attendees to call the cops and demand full refunds.
apparently this was sold as a live Willy Wonka Experience but they used all AI images on the website to sell tickets and then people showed up and saw this and it got so bad people called the cops lmao pic.twitter.com/tfkyg0G0WG
— Chris Alsikkan (@AlsikkanTV) February 26, 2024
“It was basically advertised as this big massive Willy Wonka experience with optical illusions and big chocolate fountains and sweets,” Eva Stewart told the BBC. "But when we got there, it was practically an abandoned, empty warehouse, with hardly anything in it."
A group of scorned attendees would later form a public Facebook group called House of Illuminati Scams sharing their experiences traveling miles for the event, waiting in line for upwards of half an hour, spreading the word to avoid the event's organizers, and updates on refunds.
"Shocking experience," Lauren Lawson wrote on the page. "Nothing like the website advertised! Wasted trip and £45 we better get back! Feel sorry for people who paid a lot more with larger families."
"Just turned up to be told it's canceled," Graham Wilson said. "I can't believe this has happened at a kid's event. Some folk have zero morals."
"I think we should all put oompa oompa loompa on our profile pictures in memory of Roald Dahl," Sandra Mceachran joked. "He will be turning in his grave if he saw this."
Timothee Chalamet better be back there dancing with a Hugh Grant doll or I’m calling the cops pic.twitter.com/cIpBZd1Cbb
— Chris Alsikkan (@AlsikkanTV) February 26, 2024
To make matters worse, some of the actors hired at the Wonka event claim they were also conned into performing and have yet to be paid.
“We had one night to learn it, then on the day of the event, we were told to abandon it and just improvise. Even we had been made to believe that this would be an incredible experience, however, almost everything mentioned in the script wasn’t even there,” Cara Lewis wrote in the Houe of Illuminati scam group linking a PDF to the script, adding speculation that their scripts were AI-generated as well.
Although the event's legacy likely be remembered as a collossal dissapointment, one early attendee named Shiona Morrison confirmed that it at least accomplished the bare minimum of having a Wonka performer for the kids. Though this too came with the caveat that they couldn’t hear a word he said because he wasn't microphoned despsite all the speakers littered about the event.
"I actually turned to someone and said 'this is like Willy Wonka from Temu," Morrison said.
Earlier today, House of Iluminati isssued a statement on its Facebook page alerting attendees that full refunds are still being processsed.
Thumbnail credit: Elaine Wyper on Facebook
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
