‘Grim’ Willy Wonka immersive experience leaves shocked social media users in hysterics

‘It’s one of the funniest things to happen this decade,’ one perplexed person commented

Maira Butt
Wednesday 28 February 2024 12:03 GMT
Comments
Inside £35 'immersive' Wonka experience parents are calling a 'shambles'

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A disastrous Willy Wonka immersive experience in Glasgow has become the source of hilarity on social media.

The event, which was advertised as a “full Wonka experience” complete with “delectable” chocolate fountains and “whimsical” Oompa-Loompas, ended up being a spectacular failure as children were left in tears and parents were left furious.

Visitors travelled up to two hours to get to the event and shelled out £35 for the world of pure imagination. But they were instead faced with actors struggling to recite scripts, low-resolution candyland posters pinned to walls, and children offered a couple of jelly babies along with a quarter glass of Barr’s limeade.

The “unbelievable” event went viral on social media as users were in awe of the never-ending dimensions of the failure, which drew comparisons to Fyre festival. Visitors to the luxury music festival in 2017 were sold a dream but were faced with issues to do with food, security, accommodation and sanitation.

“Actually in awe of how grim this is. F***ing outstanding” admired one X/Twitter user. Another added: “The failed Willy Wonka experience is one of the funniest things to happen this decade”.

One character in the immersive experience stole the show. A grim-looking Oompa-Loompa decked out in a bright green wig and stripy clothes could be seen at a pop-up table with bottles reminiscent of ingredients strewn across the surface.

“Obsessed with this woman who looks like she’s poisoning attendees,” commented one X/Twitter user.

“Welcome to Lush” captioned another, while some suggested she appeared as if she was “being held against her will”.

This photo from the disastrous Willy Wonka event has gone viral
This photo from the disastrous Willy Wonka event has gone viral (Supplied)

A person in a wig, silver mask and black cloak scared confused children as they appeared from behind a mirror. The character has since been dubbed the “unknown”.

“This Willy Wonka story is incredible. What’s going on here? What part of the film was this hahahahaha” laughed one X/Twitter user.

AI images promised an immersive experience but visitors were left with a low-res image pinned to a wall
AI images promised an immersive experience but visitors were left with a low-res image pinned to a wall (Stuart Sinclair/Facebook)

References were made to former This Morning presenters skipping queues to get in to the event: “Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield have reportedly skipped the queue of crying children to get inside the Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience”.

Some were less sympathetic, “If you get scammed by AI Art images then you probably deserve it lol” with another adding “Honestly if you paid money through a site that looks like this called ‘Willy’s chocolate experience’ you deserve the experience you get”.

Others questioned parent’s decisions as they said, “How do you willingly pay $40 and bring your kids to something that looks like kidnap and sells kids?”

A House of Illuminati spokesperson said: “Today has been a very stressful and frustrating day for many and for that we are truly sorry. Unfortunately, at the 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.

“We fully apologise for what has happened and will be giving full refunds to each and every person that purchased tickets.”

(Stuart Sinclair/Facebook)

While ironic supporters of the event wished they could have attended the disastrous experience, others thought it was merely overpriced.

“Hot Take: The Glasgow Willy Wonka experience doesn’t look that bad, it was just too expensive, it would have been OK for £5 to £10” said one person.

(Stuart Sinclair/Facebook)

Another ventured, “I bet fewer kids were physically injured at this crappy warehouse than the original film. That one girl turned blue and they literally rolled her away plus the drowning kid smh”.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in