Scottish families were hoping to sample chocolate treats and observe “optical wonders” at a Willy Wonka-themed event in Glasgow last weekend. In return, they received a few jelly beans, a short walk around the nearly empty warehouse, and a visit from police.
Willy's Chocolate Experience, scheduled for February 24th and 25th, will feature a chocolate fountain, an Oompa Loompa performance and a scene from Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It promised to include interactive experiences and other features on its event listing website.
Father Stuart Sinclair drove two hours from Dundee with his three children to attend the event. “There were probably 20 chairs, a couple of tables, and a half-inflated bouncy castle,” he said.
Mr Sinclair said he paid 35 pounds, or about $44, per ticket for his two sons, ages 10 and 11, and his 4-year-old daughter, who dressed up as Willy Wonka. to go to an event.
“The kids each got two jelly beans,” Sinclair said. “And they got half a cup of lemonade.”
Families reserved time slots to enter the venue every 15 minutes and were greeted by rows of sparsely decorated tables and a black cloth wall separating one sparsely decorated space from another.
“As soon as they walked in the door, they were like, 'Wow,' and just shook their heads and just couldn't believe how bad it was,” Sinclair said.
After purchasing tickets, Hamilton's Alana Lockens noticed that the event's website had been updated with a legal warning that it was not affiliated with the Wonka series, which is owned by Warner Bros. He said he noticed it. It was a scam so I was initially relieved when I arrived and saw the event actually taking place.
“We can laugh about it now, but at first I just thought it was ridiculous,” said Lockens, who went with her ex-husband, a friend and their two children. “Considering the ticket price, it was a terrible performance.”
Faced with a crowd of disappointed families, event organizers abruptly canceled the event on Saturday afternoon.
Police Scotland said officers were called after the event was called off, but police determined it was not necessary. It is unclear who called the police.
Event organizer Illuminati House addressed the complaints on Saturday, saying in a statement that it recognized the event as a disappointment and should have canceled it sooner. The company issued a statement on its Facebook page (which has since been deleted) saying: “We deeply apologize for this incident and will provide a full refund to everyone who purchased tickets.”
Illuminati House did not respond to requests for comment.
The event took place at Glasgow's Box Hub event space.
Matt Waterfield, Box Hub's operations manager, said in an email that Illuminati House approached him in early January and that the company has assumed full responsibility for marketing, promotion and operations of the event. “They decorated the venue on Friday,” he said. “The results were incredibly overwhelming.”
“We stand with the many outraged customers and sincerely hope that the House of Illuminati will refund these families as promised,” he said.
Families who participated in the experience and people hired for the experience gathered in a Facebook group to complain about what happened and discuss how to rectify it.
Jenny Fogerty, who was hired to play the Oompa Loompa, told The Scotsman that she was given a 15-page script to read the night before the event began and received her costume an hour before her family arrived.
“Wigs were very cheap,” Fogarty said. “They handed me an Amazon box that probably arrived that morning.”
Mr Fogarty said he was told he would be paid £16.66 an hour but had not yet been paid.
The event was promoted like the immersive experiences that have popped up in cities around the world over the past two decades, including New York's Museum of Ice Cream and “Van Gogh: An Immersive Experience.”
The event's website was built on that suggestion, but it also suggested that the quality of the experience might be questionable.
It promised a “journey filled with delicious treats, enchanting adventures, and moments worth capturing,” and included elaborate candy-colored illustrations. These illustrations were marred by unusual misspellings and phrases, such as “Sweet Candy Pasadise” and “Exerdray Lollipop.”
Mr Sinclair said that although his family was disappointed with Willie's chocolate experience, they still made the most of their day in Glasgow by taking their children and daughter to the Build-A-Bear workshop to make teddy bears for the first time. Told.
“The worst part was there was no chocolate,” Mr Sinclair said.
