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Willy's Chocolate Experience

Coordinates: 55°52′21″N 4°20′26″W / 55.87250°N 4.34056°W / 55.87250; -4.34056
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Willy's Chocolate Experience
One of the AI-generated advertisements used for the event, with uncorrected spelling errors and nonsensical words
Box Hub Warehouse is located in Glasgow council area
Box Hub Warehouse
Box Hub Warehouse
Date24 February 2024 (2024-02-24)
VenueBox Hub Warehouse
LocationGlasgow, Scotland
Coordinates55°52′21″N 4°20′26″W / 55.87250°N 4.34056°W / 55.87250; -4.34056
ThemeCharlie and the Chocolate Factory
Organised byHouse of Illuminati
Websitewillyschocolateexperience.com

Willy's Chocolate Experience was an unlicensed event based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that took place in Glasgow, Scotland, in February 2024. The event was promoted as an immersive and interactive family experience, illustrated on a promotional website with "dreamlike" AI-generated images.[1][2][3][4] After it was discovered that the event was held in a sparsely decorated warehouse, many customers complained, and the police were called to the venue. The event went viral on the Internet and attracted worldwide media attention.[5]

The event drew comparisons to the 2008 Lapland New Forest controversy, the 2014 Tumblr fan convention DashCon, and Billy McFarland's 2017 Fyre Festival.[6][7][8]

Background

The event was stated to take place over the weekend of 24–25 February 2024.[2] Promotional material advertised "stunning and intricately designed settings inspired by Roald Dahl's timeless tale" and "an array of delectable treats scattered throughout the experience".[9] Both the website and promotional material used AI-generated images, which included several spelling errors such as "cartchy tuns" and "a pasadise of sweet teats" and nonsensical words such as "catgacating".[10][11][12] Tickets cost up to £35 (US$45) per person.[3][5] While the event was being promoted in early February, a Reddit user who saw Facebook adverts suspected it to be a scam and was surprised that people were apparently buying tickets based solely on AI-generated images.[12]

The event was organised by House of Illuminati, a company registered to Billy Coull which claims to offer "unparalleled immersive experiences". Rolling Stone concluded that the organisation's websites and event descriptions were likely written by an AI chatbot, such as ChatGPT. Coull had also registered several other companies and claimed to work as a "consultant" for the now-defunct brand Empowerity. In 2021, he co-directed a now-defunct Glasgow food bank,[13] and in summer 2023 he independently published 17 AI-generated books on various topics, including vaccine conspiracy theories.[5][13]

Three actors were hired to portray "Willy McDuff", a character based on Willy Wonka. Actor Paul Connell said that the cast were given one day to learn the script.[5][14][15][16] Another actor playing Willy McDuff was 18-year-old Michael Archibald; the experience was his first ever acting job, and he was given the script at 6pm on Friday before the event began on Saturday.[17]

Actress Kirsty Paterson, who played one of the Oompa-Loompas (called "Wonkidoodles" in the script), said that the job offer had been posted on Indeed.com and offered £500 for two days of work.[1][5][15] The day before the event, the actors attended a dress rehearsal at the sparsely decorated venue. They were told that others would be working through the night on the production.[1] When they returned on the day of the event, the venue was in the same condition.[5][18] Paterson was given her costume an hour before the event opened, saying that "We were just handed an Amazon box that probably arrived that morning."[2]

Script

The script for the event is titled Wonkidoodles at McDuff's Chocolate Factory: A Script, and describes McDuff leading an audience through the Garden of Enchantment and the Twilight Tunnel.[19] Once there, they are confronted by a character called The Unknown, described as "an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls" who seeks to steal the magical "Anti-Graffiti Gobstopper" from McDuff's Imagination Lab. The gobstopper is "a sweet so powerful, it can make any room sparkle without lifting a finger".[19][20] McDuff defeats The Unknown by amplifying the power of the gobstopper and causing his enemy to be "gently swept up by a robotic vacuum, humorously ending the confrontation".[15][19]

The script was unusual in that it included stage directions for the audience, and descriptions of their reactions.[15] Connell described it as "15 pages of AI-generated gibberish of me just monologuing these mad things",[5] and compared the vacuum cleaner plot point to that of the video game Luigi's Mansion.[15] Interviewed after the event, Coull claimed to have written the script himself, using AI only to "check spelling, grammar, and continuity".[21]

Event

The building of which the Box Hub Warehouse is a part, on the Clydeside Industrial Estate (photo from 2019)

The event was held at the Box Hub Warehouse event space in Whiteinch, an industrial area of Glasgow.[2][4] Customers described the venue as "little more than an abandoned, empty warehouse",[5] with set dressings including a small bouncy castle, AI-generated backdrop images pinned to some of the walls,[22] and props which were "strewn about on bare concrete floors". The venue's windows were dirty and its air conditioning systems were left exposed.[23] Paterson has stated that by the time she saw the venue, she had already signed her contract and "didn't want to disappoint the kids", and thus chose to proceed with the work.[12]

The Unknown was played by a 16-year-old actress named Felicia Dawkins,[24] who wore a silver mask and a black cloak.[25] Young children were frightened by the character, who appeared from behind a large rectangular mirror.[15][25][26] Despite the script calling for The Unknown to be defeated with a vacuum cleaner, no such prop was provided, and actors were instead asked to improvise.[15]

Connell said that he and other employees were told to give each child "two jelly beans and a quarter of a cup of lemonade", although the limited supply of jelly beans quickly ran out.[4][5][15][27] Paterson and another "Wonkidoodle" actor, Jenny Fogarty, said that after the first three 45-minute performances, the cast were told to abandon the script and instead let guests walk through the venue, a process that Paterson said took "about two minutes".[1][18] The character of The Unknown, previously introduced as the main antagonist, was now "scaring children for no reason".[15] One of the actors playing McDuff improvised the idea that children should pull a "silly face" at The Unknown to scare them away, but Dawkins said that, in other cases, she "just had to awkwardly walk back to my corner".[25]

Connell was told he would be given a 15-minute break every 45 minutes, but on the day of the event, he played Willy McDuff for three and a half hours without a break.[27] After returning from a lunch break, Connell encountered a crowd of customers demanding refunds from Coull, and the other actors were unsure what to do next. After being told that the event was now cancelled halfway through its opening day,[4][13] the actors left and went to a pub. Upon returning to the venue some time later, Connell said that he felt "the threat of violence had become quite high" and that there were two police vans and two squad cars at the scene.[15]

Customer response

Willy's Chocolate Experience was widely criticised by those who attended it, with many demanding refunds.[27] One customer, who had driven with his children for two hours to reach the event, described it as an "absolute con".[23] Other visitors who arrived after the event was closed and were not informed of its cancellation requested compensation for wasted rail fares.[4] Following the event's cancellation, Coull offered to refund 850 people,[27] a statement repeated by the event's Facebook page, with some Facebook users stating that they had received their money back.[13] Paterson and Fogarty would later state that they had received half of the £500 due to them.[18]

Box Hub, the organisation that rented the warehouse to House of Illuminati, issued an apology and offered to provide a venue free of charge for those who attended the event. Box Hub apologised on behalf of House of Illuminati, stating that they "either have no regards for the families and young children they have disappointed or are too embarrassed to comment".[3] House of Illuminati later stated that they would not host any future events.[15][18]

Coull deleted his LinkedIn profile, YouTube channel and personal website in response to the controversy.[13] A few days after the event, Paul Connell said he felt that Coull was "probably one of the most disliked people in Glasgow right now".[15] In an interview with The Sunday Times, Coull apologised for how the event turned out, saying he would accept responsibility.[28]

Fundraising

In an interview with Wired magazine, Connell stated that he and the other actors were working with parents to provide a free show for the children who attended.[15]

Some items from the event were later auctioned for charity. The venue auctioned the leftover hand-written "event cancelled" sign, raising £850 for a local children's hospital,[29] while the Monorail Music record store in Glasgow auctioned two of the backdrops "rescued from the bin by a pal of the shop" for £2,250,[30][31] with the proceeds going to the British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians.[30][31]

A picture of a dispirited Paterson playing a Wonkidoodle in the "Jellybean Room" (in reality, a table covered in chemistry equipment) became a popular depiction of the event.[1][5][15] The image became a meme and was compared to a picture of a "meth lab"[1][15] and to Édouard Manet's 1882 painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, which depicts "an alienated woman at work".[32] The character of "The Unknown" was also featured in several memes. Some Twitter users expressed plans to dress up as the character for Halloween.[33] The event was spoofed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in April 2024 in a skit called "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Part Two", featuring Freddie Highmore, who had played Charlie Bucket in the 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.[34]

On 6 March 2024, Labour party leader Keir Starmer joked in the House of Commons that it seemed chancellor Jeremy Hunt had been taking marketing lessons from Willy's Chocolate Experience, in reference to Hunt's promises regarding childcare.[35] Similarly, Penny Mordaunt joked that she was under the impression that the Scottish National Party had organised the Glasgow event given its "high cost, poor return, and the fact that the police were called."[36]

An hour-long documentary about the event, called Wonka: The Scandal that Rocked Britain[37] was commissioned by Channel 5 on 6 March 2024[38] and broadcast on 16 March 2024.[21] The programme included interviews with Coull and the actors from the event. It received 2 stars out of 5 from The Guardian, which described it as having "the strong whiff of someone vastly overexplaining the joke" and that the "only real scoop" was the interview with Coull.[21]

Following the popularity of the event, Felicia Dawkins was offered the opportunity to train with the performance team and make a guest appearance acting in the London Dungeon, a haunted house attraction in London. A London Dungeon spokesperson said the aspiring actor who played The Unknown is "clearly a natural when it comes to the art of the scare".[24] In April 2024, Kirsty Paterson appeared at a "Willy's Chocolate Experience LA" cocktail and performance evening. It was staged by a collective of local artists in Los Angeles, unaffiliated with the Glasgow event. Attendees were offered three jelly beans, and proceeds were donated to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.[39][40] The Guardian was positive in its review of the event, noting that Paterson was severely jetlagged during her performance but asked, "how can you complain when shoddiness is the point?"[41]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Mack, David (28 February 2024). "Glasgow's Sad Oompa Loompa Isn't Gonna Sugarcoat This". Vulture. Archived from the original on 29 February 2024. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d Holpuch, Amanda (27 February 2024). "A Few Jelly Beans and a World of Disappointment at Willy Wonka Event". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 28 February 2024. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  3. ^ a b c Yang, Angela (28 February 2024). "A Willy Wonka-inspired experience 'scam' was so bad that people called the cops". NBC News. Archived from the original on 28 February 2024. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e Brooks, Libby (27 February 2024). "Glasgow Willy Wonka experience called a 'farce' as tickets refunded". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 27 February 2024. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Watson, Calum; Mckinnon, Morven; Bonar, Megan (1 March 2024). "Willy Wonka experience: How did the viral sensation go so wrong?". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2 March 2024. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
  6. ^ Colbert, Isaiah (27 February 2024). "Willy Wonka Experience Promoted Using Suspected AI Art Was So Bad That Customers Called the Police". IGN. Archived from the original on 27 February 2024. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  7. ^ Stenzel, Wesley (27 February 2024). "Chocolate Fyre Festival? Inside the Willy Wonka event that had infuriated guests calling the cops". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 28 February 2024. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  8. ^ Cohen, Danielle (28 February 2024). "Welcome to Fyre Fest: Wonka Edition". The Cut. Archived from the original on 28 February 2024. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  9. ^ "Willy Wonka Experience". What's On Glasgow. Archived from the original on 27 February 2024. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  10. ^ "Willys Chocolate Experience Glasgow. Get your Tickets!". willyschocolateexperience.com. Archived from the original on 1 March 2024. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  11. ^ Fear, Natalie (28 February 2024). "This disastrous Wonka event is the worst case of AI art catfishing I've seen". Creative Bloq. Archived from the original on 1 March 2024. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  12. ^ a b c Murphy, Chris (29 February 2024). ""Willy's Chocolate Experience" Nightmare: What Went Wrong?". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 1 March 2024. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  13. ^ a b c d e Klee, Miles (28 February 2024). "Huckster Behind 'Willy Wonka' Event Also Sells AI-Written Vaccine Conspiracy Books". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 28 February 2024. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  14. ^ Moody, Jasmine (28 February 2024). "'The script was 15 pages of AI-generated gibberish': Willy Wonka actor breaks silence on disastrous event". LBC. Archived from the original on 1 March 2024. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Farokhmanesh, Megan (29 February 2024). "The Willy Wonka Event's Lead Actor Speaks Out: 'It Was Just Gibberish'". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on 1 March 2024. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
  16. ^ "Actor who played Willy Wonka at mocked 'immersive' experience speaks". CNN. 28 February 2024. Archived from the original on 1 March 2024. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  17. ^ Davis, Barney (2 March 2024). "'Where dreams went to die': Wonka actor reveals chaos behind Glasgow experience". The Independent. Archived from the original on 3 March 2024. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  18. ^ a b c d Bonar, Megan (1 March 2024). "'We went viral as Oompa Loompas but we're just normal people'". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2 March 2024. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
  19. ^ a b c Germain, Thomas (29 February 2024). "Here's the Full AI-Generated Script From the Willy Wonka Disaster". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on 29 February 2024. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  20. ^ Klee, Miles (29 February 2024). "Justice for 'The Unknown,' the Roald Dahl Character That Wasn't". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2 March 2024. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
  21. ^ a b c Nicholson, Rebecca (16 March 2024). "Wonka: The Scandal that Rocked Britain review – a whole hour of TV on the chocolate disaster that went viral". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 16 March 2024. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  22. ^ Williams, Craig (29 February 2024). "'We survived the beautiful nightmare that was Willy's Chocolate Experience'". The Herald. Archived from the original on 3 March 2024. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  23. ^ a b Germain, Thomas (27 February 2024). "Cops Called to 'Willy Wonka Experience' as Crying Children Realize AI Ads Were Lies". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on 29 February 2024. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  24. ^ a b Cottrell, Hannah (13 March 2024). "Viral Willy Wonka experience star The Unknown lands new gig". The Independent. Archived from the original on 15 March 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  25. ^ a b c Scott, Katy (3 March 2024). "Willy Wonka: The Unknown star of viral chocolate experience unmasked". BBC News. Archived from the original on 3 March 2024. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
  26. ^ Notopoulos, Katie (29 February 2024). "'The Unknown' is the best part of the disastrous Willy Wonka house". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 1 March 2024. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  27. ^ a b c d Davis, Barney (29 February 2024). "Willy Wonka actor breaks silence on disastrous Willy's Chocolate Experience". The Independent. Archived from the original on 29 February 2024. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  28. ^ Adams, Abigail (7 March 2024). "Creator of Willy Wonka-Themed Experience Apologizes for Failed Event: 'It All Looked Good on Paper'". People Magazine. Archived from the original on 10 March 2024. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
  29. ^ Pease, Victoria (12 March 2024). "Willy Wonka 'event cancelled' sign raises hundreds for charity". STV News. Archived from the original on 14 March 2024. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
  30. ^ a b Boucher, Brian (12 March 2024). "Backdrops From Disastrous Willy Wonka Experience Are Up for Auction". Artnet News. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  31. ^ a b Roberts, Lizzie (14 March 2024). "Willy Wonka Glasgow experience props net £2,000 for Gaza charity". The Times. Archived from the original on 18 March 2024. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  32. ^ Greenberger, Alex (29 February 2024). "Sad Oompa Loompa from Viral Wonka Experience Draws Comparisons to Manet Painting". ARTnews. Archived from the original on 3 March 2024. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  33. ^ Singh, Olivia (29 February 2024). "Memes about a disastrous Willy Wonka-themed event are taking over the internet". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 29 February 2024. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  34. ^ Thomas, Carly (10 April 2024). "Freddie Highmore Spoofs Infamous Willy Wonka Immersive Fan Event on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'". Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 8 May 2024. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  35. ^ Patrick, Holly (6 March 2024). "Jeremy Hunt 'taking lessons from Glasgow Willy Wonka experience', jokes Starmer". The Independent. Archived from the original on 6 March 2024. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  36. ^ Jackson, Russell (7 March 2024). "Penny Mordaunt jokes she believed SNP were behind Glasgow's Willy Wonka experience due to 'high cost', 'poor return'". The Scotsman. Archived from the original on 9 March 2024. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
  37. ^ "Wonka: The Scandal That Rocked Britain | Preview (Channel 5)". www.tvzoneuk.com. Archived from the original on 19 March 2024. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  38. ^ "Willy Wonka Scam: Channel 5 Explore Viral Event in New Documentary". www.tvzoneuk.com. Archived from the original on 19 March 2024. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  39. ^ Yang, Angela (29 April 2024). "Viral Glasgow Willy Wonka 'Chocolate Experience' inspires Los Angeles event". NBC News. Archived from the original on 2 May 2024. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
  40. ^ "Wonka-inspired chocolate experience in Los Angeles that mimics Glasgow event attracts dozens". Sky News. 29 April 2024. Archived from the original on 2 May 2024. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
  41. ^ Cantor, Matthew (1 May 2024). "'Yes, this is real': LA recreates Glasgow's Willy Wonka disaster – sad Oompa Loompa included". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 31 May 2024. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
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