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People attending a Willy Wonka-inspired “Chocolate Experience” in Glasgow, Scotland, were promised “extraordinary props, oversized lollipops and a candy paradise,” all promoted with candy-colored dreamlike images. on your website.
When ticket holders arrived at the event over the weekend, they found a sparsely decorated warehouse with nothing resembling the “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” franchise that the event invoked in its advertising.
“It was just ridiculous. I mean, very amateurish. Absolutely nothing like what was described,” said Alana Lockens, who paid £35 per ticket, or $44.40., to bring his two young children to the experience. “For my kids’ sake, we were trying to be happy and smiling so they wouldn’t see the disappointment and we were just trying to make the best of a bad situation.”
Outraged attendees immediately began posting their experiences online, calling the event disappointing and a “scam.” Some people were quick to compare the event to the infamous Fyre Festival, a chaotic and expensive island concert that was falsely advertised as a “once-in-a-lifetime musical experience.”
By Saturday afternoon, the experience had been canceled and local police confirmed to NBC News that they were called to the location after attendees who felt scammed began demanding refunds. And closer examination, along with interviews of people hired to work on the event, suggests that AI-generated media may have played a key role in creating its veneer.
The event’s website promoted interactive exhibits, and images shared on the site could not be found anywhere else on the Internet using reverse image searches. Some had familiar features of AI creation, particularly strange and nonsensical letters.
Two actors hired for the event who spoke to NBC News said they were promised £500 to perform in themed costumes that weekend. Each of them said the script they were given seemed AI-generated due to its “gibberish” wording. And when they arrived at rehearsal on Friday night, more alarm bells rang.
Michael Archibald said he heard back the same day he applied for the acting job, which was listed on the job site Indeed. When he showed up for rehearsal the day before the event, the warehouse still seemed bare beyond a few props, and he said the costumes weren’t delivered until rehearsal was almost over.
Things weren’t looking much better when he arrived the next morning.
“I thought, this is where dreams die,” he said of his reaction upon entering the warehouse on Saturday. “I could already feel the shame. …I also knew that the script was generated by AI. I thought this is not normal human writing.”
The event was organized by London-based events company House of Illuminati, which was formed just three months ago, according to the U.K. government agency Companies House. He describes himself as “A realm where fantasy and reality converge to create unparalleled immersive experiences.” The company did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
In the hours following the event’s abrupt cancellation, House of Illuminati posted a now-deleted statement on its Facebook page promising to refund attendees’ money.
“Today has been a very stressful and frustrating day for many and we are very sorry. “Unfortunately, at the last minute we were let down in many areas of our event and did our best to continue and move forward and now realize we probably should have canceled first thing this morning,” the post read. “We fully apologize for what happened and will offer full refunds to each and every person who purchased tickets.”
It’s not entirely clear whether the company used AI to generate its promotional images and character scripts, and the company has not addressed the issue.
Since the current explosion of generative AI technology made it easier for internet users to instantly create web text and images from text messages, many marketers and services have started using AI-generated content in their marketing. In recent months, deepfakes of celebrities and influencers advertising certain products have also circulated, misleading some potential buyers.
Paul Connell, another actor hired for the event, said some scenes in the script were “absolute nonsense” and impossible to replicate without special effects. The actors said event organizers soon told them to throw out the scripts and simply improvise as the characters they were supposed to play.
At one point, Connell said, the actors began to suspect that the event was a sham and that they were unlikely to receive payment for their work. But after discussing the situation among themselves, she said, they decided to stay and try to entertain the children as best they could.
“I thought about it because I wanted the children to have a good time. So I’m going to be silly and take pictures with them and play little games with them,” Connell said. “There was a girl dressed as Oompa Loompa who was really upset because she was expecting Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and she found a dirty warehouse in Glasgow.”
Connell said the situation began to deteriorate shortly after the event began. She said she took a lunch break when “her sanity was starting to slip” and returned to watch the chaos unfold.
“There was just a crowd of people outside and inside. It was carnage,” Connell said. “When I came back in, I joked, ‘I’ve been having lunch for an hour, what happened?’ And there were people running everywhere, shouting and threatening the organizers.”
By then the Police Service of Scotland had been called to the scene. A spokesperson said in an email that it was not a police matter but that officers offered advice to frustrated attendees.
Lockens said he received an email confirming his refund, but has not yet received the money in his account, which, according to the House of Illuminati post, can take up to 10 business days.
Company director Billy Coull appears to have deleted most of his online presence since sparking backlash over the event. Coull did not respond to requests for comment via his Instagram page.
Disgruntled attendees have also created a Facebook group called “Illuminati House Scam” to share their experiences at Willy’s Chocolate Experience and organize efforts to secure refunds.
Box Hub, the event venue that rented its space to House of Illuminati, said in an email that it has been in contact with several parents about offering their venue as a space to host another event for families who were distraught by the end of last week.
“We would love to offer our venue completely free of charge as a gesture of apology on behalf of the House of the Illuminati, who have no respect for the families and young children they have let down or are too embarrassed to comment,” said operations manager Matt Waterfield. he wrote.
He reiterated that Box Hub had no involvement in the House of Illuminati event beyond renting the Glasgow venue and said the company was “surprised to see the way this event had developed after being led to believe that it would be a ‘fully immersive showcase’.”
For Lockens, purchasing five tickets for his family made a considerable dent in his wallet. But he said he thought the experience would be worth it for his children, who are big fans of all things Willy Wonka. (The event’s website said it had no official affiliation with Warner Bros., which owns the rights to the Willy Wonka character.)
“It’s just not what I expected at all, and it certainly wasn’t worth £35 a ticket,” he said. “In the midst of a cost of living crisis in the UK, that is money that most families will not be able to afford to part with for something that was simply so terrible.”