Fans attending an “immersive” Willy Wonka experience that had promised to transport them to a “magical realm” has instead resulted in calls to the police and comparisons to a meth lab. According to Consequence, the event — which had no connection to Warner Bros’ Timothee Chalamet-starring — was held in Glasgow, Scotland and billed by organizers House of Illuminati as “a journey filled with wondrous creations and enchanting surprises at every turn” though the reality ended up being little more than warehouse with few, underwhelming decorations.
“It was basically advertised as this big, massive Willy Wonka experience with optical illusions and big chocolate fountains and sweets,” attendee Eve Stewart told the BBC. “But when we got there, it was practically an abandoned, empty warehouse, with hardly anything in it.”
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Attendees, who had paid $40 per ticket for entry, reported that the warehouse was decorated with plastic props, a small bouncy castle, and backdrops pinned to the walls. Children were reportedly in tears and Scotland police were even called. Online, it was reported that staff at the event had been given scripts the night before and one post shared photos of a performer staffing one of the “exhibits”, describing the scene as looking like a meth lab.
On Facebook, a spokesperson for House of Illuminati wrote that “Today has been a very stressful and frustrating day for many and for that we are truly sorry. Unfortunately, at the last minute we were let down in many areas of our event and tried our best to continue and puss through and now realise we probably should have cancelled first thing this morning instead,” The post also pledged to provide full refunds, which are expected to take ten days to process. You can read the statement in full below.
“Today has been a very stressful and frustrating day for many and for that we are truly sorry.
Unfortunately, last minute we were let down in many areas of our event and tried our best to continue on and push through and now realise we probably should have cancelled first thing this morning instead.
We fully apologise for what has happened and will be giving full refunds to each and every person that purchased tickets.
We planned a fabulous event and it just did not take shape as planned and for that we are truly sorry we are devastated at how this has turned out and understand people’s anger and frustration that everyone has had, refunds have already started being issued and the rest should be over the coming days, again we are truely [sic] sorry to everyone.’”
According to the Daily Mail, Billy Coull, the man behind House of Illuminati has admitted to using AI images on the event’s website to promote and sell the event. Coull has previously self-published numerous novels written by ChatGPT and came under fire a few years ago when another event he was organizing, Santa’s Grotto, was canceled after toys and gifts had been donated. Coull has since deleted his LinkedIn.
