“Willy’s Chocolate Experience” scheduled to take place from February 24 to February 25, 2024 in Glasgow, Scotland was honestly, nothing short of a mess. 

The event was advertised to people all over the world as a magical and wondrous event where the dreams of children came true.

On the event’s website, which is still up about three weeks later, the event is marketed as “Dive into the whimsical of Willy's Chocolate Experience!, a place where chocolate dreams become reality. Book your adventure now and embark on a journey filled with wondrous creations and enchanting surprises at every turn!” (Yes, there was actually a random comma after a sentence in the advertisement.)

The event claimed to have many jaw-dropping features such as the Twilight Tunnel, the Imagination Lab, an Enchanted Garden, and captivating entertainment such as “cartchy tuns” and “a pasadise of sweet teats.” 

To demonstrate this promise, the website was full of candy-like landscapes and features.

Tickets could be purchased online for £35, which is about 44 dollars in American dollars.

However, if it wasn’t obvious enough, all of the advertisement texts and images were completely AI-generated, with incorrectly spelled words and unrealistic scenery.

The event has been going viral on social media and has inspired many people to make videos about the event and make jokes about it. Parents have begun to share videos of their experience at the event and review it. 

The actors and actresses who were involved in the event are also beginning to speak out on their own platforms and in interviews with major news sources across the world.

The actors hired for the event claimed to have been hired blindly over email only, with no auditions or public meetups, and later admitted they thought the emails were even generated.

The actors varied in age, one actress being only 16 years old with no prior experience,  but all claimed to have been reached out to by a company called the House of Illuminati, run by a man named Billy Coull.

The cast of characters that kids were allowed to meet were Willy Wonka himself, two Oompa Loompas, and a mysterious final character, The Unknown.

One of the actresses hired to play an Oompa-Loompa, hilariously misnamed as a Wonkidoodle in the script itself, known as Jenny Fogarty, claimed that she was sent her 15-page long script the night before the event was to occur and had to memorize it, despite the fact that the event organizers asked the actors to improvise and throw out the script the following day.

On the day of the event, families arrived at the address listed on the website, Box House Warehouse in Glasgow, and many were left confused.

What was advertised as captivating entertainment was seemingly a sketchy warehouse in the middle of nowhere. 

Families were distraught by the reality of what they paid for, and it was reported that the Glasgow Police were called to the scene by many.

But it was what was inside of the warehouse that sparked such outrage and humor from those attending and people on the internet.

Instead of a Candyland-inspired paradise, inside the warehouse was an amalgamation of cheaply put-together props, photo-ops of a cheap tarp with AI art printed onto it, and a lack of chocolate.

There was also a snack station you had to pay for and a small pink bouncy house in the center of the event.

Kids at the event were given treats as the experience went on, such as a half-empty cup of lemonade, and a singular jelly bean by the Oompa-Loompas.

However, what left many parents mortified and kids in tears was a segment during the walkthrough of the warehouse, led by Willy Wonka. 

In The Twilight Tunnel, which left much to be desired, the script introduced an entirely made-up character not in the films that resulted from using AI-generated writing. 

The AI created “The Unknown” which is described by the 16-year-old actress, a Glasgow resident named Felicia,  as “an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls.”

The Unknown would pop out at children after being introduced by Wonka and scare children.

Videos of The Unknown jumping out at children have been going viral across multiple social media platforms, by people following the event and parents who attended and found humor in the disappointing exhibition.

Even more bizarrely, the 15-page long script, included props and special effects not provided to actors by the event, and referred to the titular character and the Oompa-Loompas as “Willy McDuff” and “Wonkidoodles 1 and 2”.

Paul Connell, the actor who played Willy Wonka, shared that in one part of the script, he was instructed to suck up The Unknown with a vacuum, and when he asked the House of Illuminati if they were providing a prop for this scene, he was told to scrap it completely.

The widespread disappointment with the event led to it being shut down completely earlier than it was supposed to.

This caused many people who came from a long distance to visit the event to be turned away at the door with little to no explanation, and with no refunds.

The actors and actresses have claimed not to have received any payment and the House of Illuminati has failed to put out a statement or any refunds.

The disastrous event was both unfortunate and quite hilarious to people all around the world but it also serves as a reminder that lateral reading and verifying if a website or event is a scam is extremely important.

If more people noticed the fake art, inflammatory language, or even just the typos in the website handle and advertising, they might have been able to avoid being scammed by the event organizers and many kids would have been able to escape the clutches of a depressing and substandard occasion.