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A Willy Wonka-themed event that promised “a place where chocolate dreams become reality” has been lampooned all over social media after attendees say they feel mislead.
The House of Illuminati’s Willy’s Chocolate Experience, which was held at Box Hub Warehouse on Feb. 24, in Glasgow, Scotland, promised an enchanted garden, giant sweets and a visual spectacle. The ads for the event on the website show AI-generated gardens of candy as well as a poster generated by AI with misspelled promotional slogans, including: “Cartchy tuns, exarserdray lollipops” and “a pasadise of sweet teats.”
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According to Paul Connell, an actor and comedian who was one of the actors hired to play Willy Wonka, attendees were instead presented with, a single jelly bean each, a quarter-cup of lemonade and an evil chocolatier named “The Unknown,” who lives in the walls. There was no chocolate at the event.
“I feel for anyone who bought tickets to this event,” Connell said on his TikTok. “People who were expecting a magical chocolate experience and instead got me in a (top hat) in a dirty warehouse in Glasgow.”
Connell said that the script he was given for the event had “15-pages of AI-generated gibberish,” and, at one point, he was supposed to suck up The Unknown with a giant vacuum cleaner. When he asked the organizers how he was supposed to do that, they told him to improvise.
Pictures and videos shared from the event on X show a seemingly melancholic Oompa Loompa, The Unknown popping out from behind a mirror to scare children and a dusty, barren and concrete venue.
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The event, which was supposed to continue on Feb. 25, was called off after a few hours, prompting some people to reportedly contact the police when they could not enter the venue.
According to an article in TIME, police were called after the event was cancelled and the Scotland police then gave advice to those outside the venue.
“What an absolute shambles of an event,” said Stuart Sinclair on his Facebook page. Sinclair was one of many parents who decided to take their children to the event. “For the bargain price of ($60) each, well worth the trip to Glasgow.”
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Sinclair said that within two minutes of entering the event he saw a queue of people surrounding the organizer, complaining.
The company that organized the event, House of Illuminati, was created only a few months ago on Nov. 20, 2023.
“This was an event gone wrong,” said a since deleted post on The House of Illuminati’s Facebook page. “The House of Illuminati will NOT be holding any other event in the foreseeable future.”
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