What was supposed to be a fun time ended up a disaster as a Willy Wonka-inspired event turned out to be a lot less satisfying than people had hoped for.
The event was organized by the House of Illuminati in Glasgow, Scotland. The advertisements for this event, which was created through AI, featured a magical showcase that had an enchanted garden, an imagination lab, and a twilight tunnel.
Their website displayed a disclaimer at the end which wrote, “This experience is in no way related to the Wonka franchise, which is owned by the Warner Bros. company.”
Families arrived at the venue with the hopes of having an immersive show only to be met with a spare warehouse “with some props in it and some sheets.” There were no candy fountains, decorations, or a theme remotely resembling what was in book, movie, or their ads.
An attendee turned to Facebook to reveal the ‘reality,’ sharing photos of the venue.
Apparently, the organizers charged them £35 (approximately 2,500 pesos) per ticket.
People immediately realized that this was far from what the organizers had promised them.
Things got worse from there as they called the attention of the police, according to the report made by Sky News.
Social media users took to social media to share their hilarious takes about the said event.
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
The Unknown waiting for their part at the willy wonka experience pic.twitter.com/FVypelfWV2
— kara 🧌📺 (@knmccc) February 28, 2024
This ripped piece of cardboard they used to announce the cancelation of the Willy Wonka Experience event is just the cherry on top. I'm crying laughing 🤣 pic.twitter.com/afP7zxJoJ4
— Roman Chayok (@jadikosaur) February 28, 2024
The more I hear about this Willy Wonka experience the funnier it gets. People make Glasgow as they say 😭 pic.twitter.com/yT3fSxe7J0
— Martin Cardno (@cardno21) February 28, 2024
Every photo of the Willy Wonka experience just looks like this pic.twitter.com/o19OaocXHs
— Artie (Andrew Ridgeley’s real husband) 🍉🍉 (@Unearthly_Chi1d) February 28, 2024
People online have also speculated that the images the organizers used were generated by artificial intelligence. Some of the images that are found on their website have indications of AI art.
An event company in my city was charging £35 to enter a "Willy Wonka" experience this weekend and it was so bad they shut it down almost immediately after they opened. Angered parents, fake AI advertising, very sad.
But this image of the meth lab Oompa Loompa has sent me man pic.twitter.com/wPKP2F3GNA
— RossBoomsocks (@RossBoomsocks) February 27, 2024
The #WillyWonka Experience story is going viral 🍫 Why? Because the event organisers used AI to advertise "a universe where your dreams come true" . This actually turned out to be an empty warehouse with a bouncy castle, 2 jelly beans per child and some inflatable bears. pic.twitter.com/bLUqdP0vml
— Charli Day (@charli_says) February 28, 2024
Absolutely dying over the Willy Wonka Experience script 🤣
Literally just AI and barely tweaked#WillyWonkaExperience pic.twitter.com/cHUfjAJPdn
— Aaron S Bailey 🍿 (@AaronBaileyArt) February 28, 2024
okay my question about the Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience is how did the people fall for the ai images used to promote it???? 😭😭😭 like????!??! pic.twitter.com/mB1surq8Lj
— saph 🃏 (@saph_ish) February 29, 2024
The House of Illuminati has since issued an apology on Facebook last February 23 that can no longer be found on their page and wrote, “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 and tried our best to continue on and push through and now realize we probably should have canceled first thing this morning instead. We fully apologize for what has happened and will be giving full refunds to each and every person that purchased tickets.”
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