The now infamous event was a disaster from start to finish (Picture: SWNS)
An event intended to be a magical day filled with sweets and imagination turned out to be a disaster which ended with children crying, police arriving at the venue and a bizarre character called the ‘Unknown’.
The Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow has marked itself into internet infamy after the event went horrifically wrong.
With children in tears, House of Illuminati, an ‘immersive events company’ that organised Willy’s Chocolate Experience, was forced to cancel the weekend event midway and issued some 800 refunds.
The £35-a-ticket event at the Box Hub Warehouse in Whiteinch promised a ‘chocolate fantasy like never before’, according to House of Illuminati.
‘Charming characters singing original catchy tunes’ will fill the room, the website says, as they lead the children on an ‘exhilarating and immersive adventure’ through the ‘twilight tunnel’ and ‘imagination lab’. Images of what the event would look like appeared to be AI-generated.
Instead, hundreds of families arrived to find a near-empty warehouse where a few plastic mushrooms and gummy bears, a pink bouncy castle and tables and chairs greeted them.
Attendees entered to see benches and small gate reading ‘factory’ (Picture: SWNS)
A statue of mushrooms and flowers was inside the venue (Picture: SWNS)
A gummy bear stood guard by the small bridge (Picture: SWNS)
The venue and display
The event, organised by House of Illuminati, rented out a space in Glasgow’s Box Park and decorated it in a way that some online compared to an ‘abandoned warehouse’.
Attendees were promised a ‘twilight tunnel’, ‘imagination lab’ and an area filled with candy and large decorations.
Instead, they were greeted with a purple ‘factory’ entrance, with cheap black curtains surrounding it to block off parts of the venue that were undecorated.
A large mushroom and flower statue were inside of the venue, but didn’t do much to add to the appeal.
A small gummy bear statue and two candy twist themed statues were also a part of the small set up.
The actors
Actors were given cheap costumes ahead of the event (Picture: SWNS)
A creature called ‘The Unknown’ appeared to terrify children (Picture: SWNS)
Kirsty Paterson was the Oompa Loompa referred to as a ‘meth head’ due to her set up (Picture: SWNS)
The actors in the event have also hit back at organiser Billy Coull after pictures of their shabby costumes and cheap sets went viral, claiming they have been made scapegoats for the event organiser’s poor planning.
One of the actresses, Kirsty Paterson, ended up inadvertently becoming the face of the disaster, after a photo of her dressed as an Oompa-Loompa while standing next to a billowing chemistry set was widely mocked online.
Nicknamed ‘Meth-lab Oompa-Loompa lady,’ Ms Paterson later admitted that not only had she not been paid the £500 she was promised, but that she had not even been briefed on her role before being thrown into the chaos.
Speaking to MailOnline, she said: ‘I was angry at the time because I felt like this is embarrassing for me, and I felt bad for the people coming in as well.
‘I actually ended up shouting at the guy. I just said to him he’s a joke and this is like embarrassing, and how can we basically live with himself, doing this to people.
‘This is really embarrassing for me. My job is teaching kids yoga and I go into schools and stuff and I do kids’ entertainment. This is none of our faults at all. We got the job and then we were given the script.’
The actor who played Wonka slammed the organisation of the event (Picture: SWNS)
Regarding the infamous ‘meth-lab’ photo which went viral, she added: ‘I got stuck to the jelly bean bit and by that point I felt awful.
‘There was a part where they were saying it was like a science lab, and you were supposed to hand out jelly beans, and by that point they had run out of jelly beans, so I was just trying to make slightly exciting for the kids.
‘Then I walked off scene because I was so embarrassed.’
Actor and comedian Paul Connell, who played Willy Wonka, described being handed a script of ’15 pages of AI gibberish’ which he was forced to improvise around.
Describing his ordeal on TikTok, he said children were given just one jelly bean and half a cup of supermarket-brand lemonade during the tour.
Footage of the tour also showed a masked figure called The Unknown- ‘an evil chocolate-maker who lives in the walls of the factory’ scaring young children.
Mr Connell said the script required Willy Wonka to ‘defeat’ the masked monster with a magic vacuum cleaner- but no such prop had been supplied
‘It’s easily the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever been a part of,’ he said.
The reaction
Groups of furious families confronted the organiser outside (Picture: Facebook)
In a dedicated Facebook group, punters described children being handed only a few jelly babies and a quarter of a can of Barr’s Limeade.
One mum said she arrived with her family at 10.30am for an experience that only lasted a few minutes.
‘Waited in a huge queue for about 40 minutes and then when we got inside there was more waiting around,’ she said on social media.
Police Scotland confirmed officers attended the scene to find crowds gathering outside, as footage showed furious families confronting the House of Illuminati director with two bouncers, as he tried to calm them down outside the building.
In a since-deleted Facebook post, House of Illuminati apologised for the ‘stressful and frustrating day’.
‘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,’ the company said.
Coull has since apologised for the affair while admitting the promotional images were AI-generated.
The director admitted they used AI to sell the event (Picture: Facebook)
Social media reaction
Since the chaos of the event was revealed, it has gone viral online, with users on X and Instagram making countless memes over the debacle.
Many are focused on the viral photo of the Oompa Loompa at the science counter, but others are poking fun at the entire experience.
Leanne posted: ‘The funniest part of the willy wonka thing is that if it reopened this weekend it’d sell more tickets than it ever did.’
Many have already said their Halloween costume this year will be the ‘unknown’ or the ‘meth lab Oompa Loompa’.
Safe to say that the disastrous event won’t be leaving our memories anytime soon.
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