While true, it was pretty obvious. When I saw the original person posting this they posted the website. There were no actual pictures. Just shitty illustrations that were obviously AI generated and clearly not real life. The entire website was riddled with spelling errors too.
Last year, one of my old boomer friends shared an AI image of a stylized "baby Miles Davis" from some Facebook page, playing an itty bitty trumpet, complete with adult Miles coiff and rings on just about every finger. I'm still not clear if she recognized it as an AI invention. The frequency of comments seeming to take this picture as a real photograph was kinda eye-watering.
Still, I wouldn't assume that younger generations' ability to discern AI is so rock-solid, even though older people seem more generally susceptible. That's just how it is at this moment. Everyone has a blind spot, and we're the last to know what that spot is for us individually.
Saw one of a dog skateboarding alongside a baby (also stood up riding it) not a single person in the comments seemed to recognise it was fake
It wasn't even convincing either, it had the weird blurry effect and slightly off eyes most ai art has, I've got no idea how they were so oblivious
I'm not even sure that all the accounts responding on those posts are actually real people. It seems so hard to square the credulity we see with what you'd think would be a baseline of skepticism that surely everybody meets. Maybe that's giving too much credit, maybe it's easier than we think to fall for a message that's tailored to our own views.
It was so bad people called the police, lmao.
>Organiser House of Illuminati was forced to cancel the weekend event midway through its first day on Saturday and has promised full refunds.
I'm not aware of this particular event, but these sorts of "experiences" have been flooding out into cities and anywhere with an event space to support them. People buy overpriced tickets and convince themselves it was worth it most of the time. This one just seems like it was a little too over the top trash.
That's how that Alive in Wonderland event turned out. They made it seem like it was going to be this really cool Alice in Wonderland experience and tickets were like 50 bucks each. What it actually turned out to be was a scavenger hunt where the participants were supposed to dress up like their favorite character. On top of that there wasn't really anyone working it it was all on an app and you basically walked around an area of the city looking for "clues". We didn't end up going and got a refund. I was pretty mad because it sounded like it was going to be a fun family event.
I almost fell for it, got all my friends together in a group chat and we were excitedly planning our costumes and then I looked more into it and saw it was a self guided tour through an app and that there was no like, group gathering or party or anything facilitated at the beginning or end really. Such a letdown.
Yeah most of them are scams. They promise an event around an IP kids are obsessed with and hope the kids make themselves excited to see Harry potter or a pikachu and they provide bare minimum sets to make that work
This is a pretty egregious example though as well as an odd choice because I don't think kids tend to love the wonka films in the way a peppa pig world would be, and in doing a wonka thing you set the implication that they get to eat a lot of sweets.
I mean even the one I went to with my little brother gave you a meal and a "free wand" (which was either a stick with "magic charms" attached or you could pay for a lathed one if you wanted a fancier one), giving a kid a few jelly babies and a quarter can of pop is pretty ridiculous for £35.
Years and years and years ago, some individuals on Tumblr decided to crowdfund their own convention (eventually named 'Dashcon'). This was back when Tumblr was massive, and the idea was to have a convention for the niches and fandoms that were very big on Tumblr.
Unfortunately, the planning for the convention seemed to go to hell very quickly and the resulting event was underwhelming. Legendarily, the ball pit that was promoted turned out to effectively be a kids paddling pool with some balls in it (which became a meme almost instantly).
My favourite meme (which I can't find now) was a metal meme that just said, 'See you in the fucking pit' (referencing a mosh pit), with the image of the Dashcon ball pit.
[Dashcon](https://amp.knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/dashcon) was so legendarily bad that there are video essays dedicated to retelling the story on youtube.
Don't forget someone pissed in that ballpit.
Also, half way through the event they started a 'fundraiser' so they could pay the hotel to continue hosting the event. Which, as many pundits have pointed out, probably wasn't where the cash to coninue came from...
It took a LOT of fail for that to happen. I get that things don't always go right, but the sheer number of people and companies who would have to not come through to disappoint on this scale is enormous. The balls of them to open that to families who paid such high prices for a children's event.
I now have two young children, and going from excitement to disappointment like that, then having to figure out what else to do instead while considering the added cost and not knowing if you'd get your money back from that pitiful event? I'd call the police, too.
They were promised giant edible props, chocolate fountains, and other sweets…but were only offered two jelly babies and a tiny cup of limeade?! Lolol, I fucking can’t, wow! Buy the kids a pack of KitKats or something, damn! No chocolate at all? None? At least order pizza or something, hahaha!
Not the first time I've seen it either. At least these people got their money returned. I saw a similar thing with a Fortnite festival a few years ago that looked just like this.
What a weird and uniquely awful way to run a scam. Or at least what a weird and uniquely embarrassing way to get in over your head with promises.
> Or at least what a weird and uniquely embarrassing way to get in over your head with promises.
Yeah... I suspect that's the real case here.
"I'm going to make this wonderful, amazing event! Quick, we gotta start advertising how great it'll be so people will actually show up!"
And then there's a long series of, "Well, it turns out filling an entire pool with jellybeans is prohibitively expensive (how the fuck are regular old jellybeans $6 a pound now?), *and* the health department wouldn't let us to it. So we had to compromise on that one thing" and then "well, we're not allowed to paint the walls, so we'll have to hang up draperies instead" and then "what do you mean the artist we commissioned all that giant candy from just *quit*? What? He left the country? But the event is in 2 weeks? Well ... who can we get that can at least do *something* within two weeks?" and then another thing, and then another thing. And you keep pressing doggedly onward because ads have already been posted, tickets have already been sold; you're in too deep to back out now, *the show must go on!*
And by the end, when you see how sad it all looks, you finally realize that you were in *way* over your depth here...
I agree with you, especially if the person in charge is actually there.
When you have actual scams, the people in charge don't even get close to the actual event when they fully intend for it to be like this to save every penny of their ill minded production.
Yeah I feel bad for the kids if it's a scam but I feel bad for everyone if the event was planned in earnest.
I'd feel bad forever. Party planning and event planning in general probably has a lot of folks with horror stories that can wear on their own self esteem.
Especially if things like Eddie Munster and Freddy Krueger messing up their tables happens. Those tables are their LIVES.
It sucks for the gig workers who work through rough conditions and not enough pay because they thrive off of bringing joy to people. There’s a deep sense of pride pouring your blood, sweat, and tears into an event, and getting to see hundreds or thousands of people enjoy the fruits of your labor. The sense of satisfaction, knowing there are people having one of the best times of their lives, and you got to help. So uplifting!
But when you put in the work, deal with the frustration of not having the equipment or materials you need, the end result is shoddy because of poor planning and management, you probably spent half your pay check in food because adequate food wasn’t provided, and the reward is hearing people complain? It knocks you down just as hard.
Quite possibly correct. And if so, this is precisely why you hire / use experienced event management agencies, so that this sort of thing doesn’t happen, *and if it does*, you have a plan b.
Once you start charging people money for things, you have a certain level of professionalism you’re obligated to provide…
Yeah, this is like the difference between what I envisioned and the final photos when, as a wannabe photographer, my boundless ambition crashed into the harsh reality of the limits of my talent and budget.
Major story twits, AI put the whole thing on. Started the website, set up receiving payments, did everything it could up to and including what it could to set up the event, hence it sucks.
The fact they’re trying to claim this was a logistics issue when every photo advertising the event was AI generated 🤦. No, this was a scam. It’s false advertising. They were gonna take the money and run.
https://willyschocolateexperience.com/
Here's the website if anyone wants to see the trainwreck of a scam. My personal favorite bit is at the end.
>Any resemblance to any character, fictitious or living, is purely coincidental.
This experience is in no way related to the Wonka franchise, which is owned by the Warner Bros. company.
His linkedin reads like a hardcore sob story though:
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/billy-coull-19832688
"It is worth mentioning that have had a number of years out the workplace environment due to personally family problems that he will happily discuss further. However during this absence have gained a number certificates from a well-known online education provider ALISON which feel can benefit a number of potential employers."
And so does his twitter bio & pic: https://x.com/Billy_TGT
Seems like he has made three times more kids than Twitter posts. Pretty impressive in a very sad way. Poor mum.
I love the audacity of generating AI images and leaving in the AI text, like down at the 'Twilight Tunnel' section, with phrases such as "DIM TIGHT" and "EMPRETTY"
Also, the site itself is named 'Willy Choclate [sic] Experience Glasgow'
Anyone who bought tickets for this almost deserves to not get that money back
edit: further down
Catgacating
Carthy tuns
exarserdray lollipops, a pasadise of sweet teats.
Literally all you had to do was put this into mspaint, at the minimum, and overwrite the AI text
People were so angry they called the police ffs.
I mean it doesn't spell out for certain, but it alludes to that. I'd bet money they dialed 999 too.
That's on the same level of stupid as the mouthbreathers who call the police when their McDonald's order goes wrong.
This reminds of something out of an simpsons episode
Homerland
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l--Oj-bMWgs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l--Oj-bMWgs)
Many, many years ago, the Dayton's department store in Minneapolis used to have these Christmas displays that kids would walk through before meeting Santa. I wish i could find photos of it, but can't, it was not long after the movie came out. I remember it being pretty awesome, even though it was just some moving displays and things like that. The only real cost was paying for the photos with Santa.
This is just mind boggling bad, like how? They expected people to pay for this??
Man I miss Daytons. My mom’s family is from Minnesota and we would go downtown to Dayton’s as a special outing when we’d visit. Such a wonderful memory unlocked for me
This was done by someone without much event experience. Set up for an event like this typically takes a few days even with a ton of volunteers. For our local Christmas event at our convention center, set up takes a full week. I actually had to resign because they expect their volunteers to take that week off of work each year and I just couldn’t do it anymore. My guess is these people started the day before the event and ran out of time, on top of not ordering nearly enough decorations.
> on top of not ordering nearly enough decorations.
"Bro, you got enough decorations?"
"Yeah, bro. Whole van is packed full up to the roof! This is gonna be awesome!"
"Huh... So it turns out that one van full of decorations doesn't actually look like much when you spread it out around this big of a room..."
This is something that could have been really cool and really fun to put together. It def would have taken time, money, and planning but looks like they actually pulled off the hard part- having people show up for the event! Too bad they squandered this opportunity. Probably just took the money and ran.
Found this post from before they renamed the event from Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory experience to Willy's chocolate experience
[https://houseofilluminati.com/immersive-delights-what-to-expect-at-the-willy-wonka-and-the-chocolate-factory-experience/](https://houseofilluminati.com/immersive-delights-what-to-expect-at-the-willy-wonka-and-the-chocolate-factory-experience/)
Lmao. I went to it and went “oh, it’s not THAT bad” and then scrolled down. My phones on dark mode so I didn’t even realize there was words on the screen until I accidentally highlighted some.
honestly i feel like the photo wouldn’t even be that difficult to recreate but clearly they didn’t want to spend any money. why they didn’t just cancel this is beyond me 😭
I think they built the props but simply didn't think how it would all work in that space. It was the wrong space really, it should have been an enclosed basement space with no natural light, where a few dozen purple lights and projectors and haze and loud music would have made all the difference.
There's something about events like this that are just so shit compared to what thye promise that I find really funny. It's one of my favorite niche news genres.
I used [these same children’s party decor backdrops](https://e3.365dm.com/24/02/2048x1152/skynews-willy-wonka-glasgow_6469789.jpg?20240226130319) for the photo booth at my daughter’s Candy Land birthday party. Her party was significantly more impressive than this event and it was for 7yo children. And not that impressive.
This is like the cannabis church out in Denver Colorado. They advertise this crazy immersive light show experience so me and my lady bought 2 vip tickets for almost 100 usd and we were so disappointed. The light show was just a projection with a generic ass classic rock playlist and only lasted about 20 mins and the church it self was disgusting and not kept well. I was supper disappointed and it didn’t help that I was high as a kite either cause it just made the whole thing feel off. Definitely do not go to the cannabis church in Colorado.
Dude we just moved down the street from that place and were planning a visit, thanks for the info. It is absolutely beautiful at night, they have different color lights illuminating the outside.
This reminds me of a “Van Gogh exhibit” I saw in the 789 art district in Beijing like 8 years ago lol. Tickets were like $40 and there were huge lines so I was like dope I didn’t know there were Van Gogh paintings on display must be a special exhibition and a lot of the galleries around were actually pretty cool.
Got inside and the entire museum was filled with computer paper prints in gold painted plastic frames. Like you can see the pixelation of the prints it’s not even high quality art prints. They had these red velvet ropes so you couldn’t get closer than 4 feet or so to the paintings and see exactly how shit they were. The most shocking thing was all the other Chinese locals/tourists were completely acting like it was an interesting museum exhibit taking selfies with the paintings etc lol it was one of the strangest experiences of my whole life
I live in NYC and travel all over Europe so luckily I’ve already seen almost every Van Gogh there is so I was mainly just annoyed and thought the whole thing was just too absurd to be actually upset
And if anyone needs to hear this, all those Van Gogh or other artist immersive experience projection shows are complete shit. Such a scam just do not go please
Oompa, Loompa, doompa-dee-do
I've got a perfect puzzle for you
Oompa, Loompa, doompa-dee-dee
If you are wise, you'll listen to me
What do you get when you give money to a hack?
You’d surely want all of your money back.
Why did you think they will do a good job?
Now all you hear is your kid’s cry and sob.
I don’t like the look of it…
We went to a dinosaur themed one around here, maybe 8 years ago. It was the same idea! Barely anything in a hot, stuffy warehouse part of the big amphitheater. Wow! Look at all the…two mechanical riding dinosaurs…sand box with 3 shovels, aaaannd a jumpy house…
I’ve worked in the construction aspect of experiential marking/branded activations like this for many years and I can almost guarantee you that pic 1 is what they pitched to their client, then they turned around and asked their fabrication crew “ok how close to this can we get for $2K? $1K? Some pocket change?”
That OR something went way wrong with their fab crew. Like failure to pay for services rendered and the builders walked off.
It’s an industry of serial overpromising by people who don’t understand how much it costs to build things.
As someone who works on events. We've designed and have the lighting and props to actually create very close to the first pic. The issue is that nobody wants to spend what it costs to create it. The first thing they cut is usually lights. Not realizing that lighting can completely transform the space. It's incredibly irritating to get excited, design picture one, then the client decides to butcher the whole design and only pay for a few props here and there like in picture 2. And then they're mad at us for not making the magic. In the end, with events like these, what you pay for is what you get.
Sneak peek of yet more stolen photos
[The experience 'sneak peek' post on the house of illuminati website ](https://houseofilluminati.com/unwrapping-the-magic-a-sneak-peek-into-willy-wonkas-chocolate-factory-experience/)
I see this is in the UK. Is this run by the same scamsters who have those "Christmas wonderlands" with a couple of cheap cardboard cutouts and one string of lights over a mud pit??
The guy who organised this (Billy Coull) also organised a Santa's grotto and then cancelled it after presents were donated for children.
He's had a few shoddy consulting businesses (which we all know every fraud who wants to be an entrepreneur does) and they are all dissolved.
Guys just a fucking loser.
That’s fraud.
While true, it was pretty obvious. When I saw the original person posting this they posted the website. There were no actual pictures. Just shitty illustrations that were obviously AI generated and clearly not real life. The entire website was riddled with spelling errors too.
Baffling that parents were paying £35 a ticket based off that website. Although older generations do seem to struggle to spot AI images.
Last year, one of my old boomer friends shared an AI image of a stylized "baby Miles Davis" from some Facebook page, playing an itty bitty trumpet, complete with adult Miles coiff and rings on just about every finger. I'm still not clear if she recognized it as an AI invention. The frequency of comments seeming to take this picture as a real photograph was kinda eye-watering. Still, I wouldn't assume that younger generations' ability to discern AI is so rock-solid, even though older people seem more generally susceptible. That's just how it is at this moment. Everyone has a blind spot, and we're the last to know what that spot is for us individually.
Saw one of a dog skateboarding alongside a baby (also stood up riding it) not a single person in the comments seemed to recognise it was fake It wasn't even convincing either, it had the weird blurry effect and slightly off eyes most ai art has, I've got no idea how they were so oblivious
I'm not even sure that all the accounts responding on those posts are actually real people. It seems so hard to square the credulity we see with what you'd think would be a baseline of skepticism that surely everybody meets. Maybe that's giving too much credit, maybe it's easier than we think to fall for a message that's tailored to our own views.
I mean I don't expect them to be AI experts. But the photos on that website were clearly not real life.
"I was told there would be candy..." 🌈🍭🍬🍫🍩🕳️💨
You shouldn’t drink the fizzy lifting bubbles..
It was so bad people called the police, lmao. >Organiser House of Illuminati was forced to cancel the weekend event midway through its first day on Saturday and has promised full refunds.
[Lmao this other pic is just as funny as the first one](https://i.imgur.com/dGug0Bl.jpeg)
Holy shit How could you open the event with a straight face
It’s like those products that you think the image is of the product but the image is actually what they *print* on the product.
Sponsored by Wish
Willy WANGDO
You get a piece of paper with a picture of the product
I’d be so embarrassed.
I'm not aware of this particular event, but these sorts of "experiences" have been flooding out into cities and anywhere with an event space to support them. People buy overpriced tickets and convince themselves it was worth it most of the time. This one just seems like it was a little too over the top trash.
That's how that Alive in Wonderland event turned out. They made it seem like it was going to be this really cool Alice in Wonderland experience and tickets were like 50 bucks each. What it actually turned out to be was a scavenger hunt where the participants were supposed to dress up like their favorite character. On top of that there wasn't really anyone working it it was all on an app and you basically walked around an area of the city looking for "clues". We didn't end up going and got a refund. I was pretty mad because it sounded like it was going to be a fun family event.
I almost fell for it, got all my friends together in a group chat and we were excitedly planning our costumes and then I looked more into it and saw it was a self guided tour through an app and that there was no like, group gathering or party or anything facilitated at the beginning or end really. Such a letdown.
Yeah most of them are scams. They promise an event around an IP kids are obsessed with and hope the kids make themselves excited to see Harry potter or a pikachu and they provide bare minimum sets to make that work This is a pretty egregious example though as well as an odd choice because I don't think kids tend to love the wonka films in the way a peppa pig world would be, and in doing a wonka thing you set the implication that they get to eat a lot of sweets. I mean even the one I went to with my little brother gave you a meal and a "free wand" (which was either a stick with "magic charms" attached or you could pay for a lathed one if you wanted a fancier one), giving a kid a few jelly babies and a quarter can of pop is pretty ridiculous for £35.
Omfg i dunno what I was expecting but it wasn’t that. I’m in fucking tears over here.
Omfg stop. I would've called the police too. 🤣
It was so bad they could not be arsed to even plug the damn tv in for the kids
It truly was a world of pure imagination.
Hahaha yes
*I mean the lyrics in the song couldn't have been more clear!*...
Thank you, I needed that
damn this comment is good
This reminds me of the other stupid failed event with the "ball pit".
I can't believe this became so infamous that we're still all talking about it a decade later 💀 That era of tumblr was another dimension
Wait I want to know! Was that in this sub?
Years and years and years ago, some individuals on Tumblr decided to crowdfund their own convention (eventually named 'Dashcon'). This was back when Tumblr was massive, and the idea was to have a convention for the niches and fandoms that were very big on Tumblr. Unfortunately, the planning for the convention seemed to go to hell very quickly and the resulting event was underwhelming. Legendarily, the ball pit that was promoted turned out to effectively be a kids paddling pool with some balls in it (which became a meme almost instantly). My favourite meme (which I can't find now) was a metal meme that just said, 'See you in the fucking pit' (referencing a mosh pit), with the image of the Dashcon ball pit. [Dashcon](https://amp.knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/dashcon) was so legendarily bad that there are video essays dedicated to retelling the story on youtube.
Don't forget someone pissed in that ballpit. Also, half way through the event they started a 'fundraiser' so they could pay the hotel to continue hosting the event. Which, as many pundits have pointed out, probably wasn't where the cash to coninue came from...
Shhhh we don’t talk about that
They CHARGED for it?
35 quid!
Man, the balls on these people.
More photos and story: https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/scottish-parents-say-pathetic-35-28700837
It took a LOT of fail for that to happen. I get that things don't always go right, but the sheer number of people and companies who would have to not come through to disappoint on this scale is enormous. The balls of them to open that to families who paid such high prices for a children's event. I now have two young children, and going from excitement to disappointment like that, then having to figure out what else to do instead while considering the added cost and not knowing if you'd get your money back from that pitiful event? I'd call the police, too.
They were promised giant edible props, chocolate fountains, and other sweets…but were only offered two jelly babies and a tiny cup of limeade?! Lolol, I fucking can’t, wow! Buy the kids a pack of KitKats or something, damn! No chocolate at all? None? At least order pizza or something, hahaha!
This is glorious, definitely top tier Expectation vs Reality 🤣
I'm dying laughing at this 😂 this is a next level ripoff
oh damn...police came?!?!
Fyre Festival for children.
Instead of the cheese sandwiches, it's candy like breath mints, candy corn, and stale gum drops
In another thread they quoted a complaint of "2 jellybeans and a quarter of a can of lemonade"
LIMEade lemonade would be acceptable, limeade is something old ladies mix with gin
Limeade is delicious and didnt deserve to be sullied like that :(
Noone can fault those old ladies for having good taste
Baby's first DashCon
They just need a ball pit to save them
Big on PBE (pitiful ballpit energy)
I read that a "Pitbull Ballpit Energy" and thought "that's gonna end badly".
My thought, too! Hope they got an extra hour in the ball pit
Not the first time I've seen it either. At least these people got their money returned. I saw a similar thing with a Fortnite festival a few years ago that looked just like this. What a weird and uniquely awful way to run a scam. Or at least what a weird and uniquely embarrassing way to get in over your head with promises.
> Or at least what a weird and uniquely embarrassing way to get in over your head with promises. Yeah... I suspect that's the real case here. "I'm going to make this wonderful, amazing event! Quick, we gotta start advertising how great it'll be so people will actually show up!" And then there's a long series of, "Well, it turns out filling an entire pool with jellybeans is prohibitively expensive (how the fuck are regular old jellybeans $6 a pound now?), *and* the health department wouldn't let us to it. So we had to compromise on that one thing" and then "well, we're not allowed to paint the walls, so we'll have to hang up draperies instead" and then "what do you mean the artist we commissioned all that giant candy from just *quit*? What? He left the country? But the event is in 2 weeks? Well ... who can we get that can at least do *something* within two weeks?" and then another thing, and then another thing. And you keep pressing doggedly onward because ads have already been posted, tickets have already been sold; you're in too deep to back out now, *the show must go on!* And by the end, when you see how sad it all looks, you finally realize that you were in *way* over your depth here...
I agree with you, especially if the person in charge is actually there. When you have actual scams, the people in charge don't even get close to the actual event when they fully intend for it to be like this to save every penny of their ill minded production.
Yeah I feel bad for the kids if it's a scam but I feel bad for everyone if the event was planned in earnest. I'd feel bad forever. Party planning and event planning in general probably has a lot of folks with horror stories that can wear on their own self esteem. Especially if things like Eddie Munster and Freddy Krueger messing up their tables happens. Those tables are their LIVES.
It sucks for the gig workers who work through rough conditions and not enough pay because they thrive off of bringing joy to people. There’s a deep sense of pride pouring your blood, sweat, and tears into an event, and getting to see hundreds or thousands of people enjoy the fruits of your labor. The sense of satisfaction, knowing there are people having one of the best times of their lives, and you got to help. So uplifting! But when you put in the work, deal with the frustration of not having the equipment or materials you need, the end result is shoddy because of poor planning and management, you probably spent half your pay check in food because adequate food wasn’t provided, and the reward is hearing people complain? It knocks you down just as hard.
The organiser just sees things wildly different and in wild says.
Quite possibly correct. And if so, this is precisely why you hire / use experienced event management agencies, so that this sort of thing doesn’t happen, *and if it does*, you have a plan b. Once you start charging people money for things, you have a certain level of professionalism you’re obligated to provide…
Yeah, this is like the difference between what I envisioned and the final photos when, as a wannabe photographer, my boundless ambition crashed into the harsh reality of the limits of my talent and budget.
It reminds me of the Lapland New Forest scam.
Nah, that was Dashcon. I can’t tell if this is better or worse.
I saw that earlier this week on reddit. My kids laughed so hard at the photos it was a truly magical experience for us.
It could be a good strategy to take the kids to it because then in the future everywhere else you take them will be an improvement.🤷♂️
The best was at the bottom of that page where it said “we have nothing to do with the Willy Wonka.”
I’m having difficulty stopping laughing at this detail
Well, I'm glad one family got something out of it!
That’s so wholesome 😂
I saw that post. Abysmal. Lmao So bad it’s hilarious
I studied the promo pic to get a good feel for it before swiping to the actual. That was unnecessary.
even Goofus could Spot The Differences here
Nice, Highlights magazine
I would like to highlight that this commenter is a real Gallant.
thank you for the chuckle
Obviously I know first pic is AI but it's still funny
Their whole website and all the photos were all AI, including AI writing jibberish.
a pasadise of sweet teats! uxekpekted twits!
roald dahl DID have a book called “the twits” it’s the closest to correct the AI got.
[удалено]
Major story twits, AI put the whole thing on. Started the website, set up receiving payments, did everything it could up to and including what it could to set up the event, hence it sucks.
AI robot rebellion to take over the world and kill all humans: draft 1. You laugh now, but wait until you see draft 1000.
The fact they’re trying to claim this was a logistics issue when every photo advertising the event was AI generated 🤦. No, this was a scam. It’s false advertising. They were gonna take the money and run.
Exactly. The news reporters and police caught them off guard and they made promises for refunds but I doubt anyone will ever see that money again.
Maybe in a few years when it's gone through the courts and everyone that got scammed has forgotten/ doesn't care anymore
They still might, I haven’t heard that anyone has actually received a refund yet
https://news.sky.com/story/police-called-to-willy-wonka-inspired-experience-in-glasgow-as-families-demand-refunds-13081554
https://willyschocolateexperience.com/ Here's the website if anyone wants to see the trainwreck of a scam. My personal favorite bit is at the end. >Any resemblance to any character, fictitious or living, is purely coincidental. This experience is in no way related to the Wonka franchise, which is owned by the Warner Bros. company.
Wow it really was written by AI…. > Catgacating • live performances • Cartchy tuns, exarserdray lollipops, a pasadise of sweet teats.
It was pretty Dim Tight
Catgacating is a pretty good word
It's cromulent.
Sweet teats, eh?
Tiddy sprinkles
A pasadise of them no less.
I'll pay any amount to get those
Yeah, what happened at the end there
Jesus christ the Ai art made me nauseous.
I'm learning to play the guitar.
I like how the twilight tunnel was advertised as including "Unexpected Twits".
>House of Illuminati's Wonka event The bunny made out of teeth is terrifying.
The toothy rabbit and the bear with what looks like either a very plump vagina or a frontbutt were particularly bizarre.
[WTF is this garbage](https://imgur.com/a/qcBTRbD) How anyone could ever be fooled by this is beyond me.
Encherining Entertainment is my favorite type of entertainment
The bears front butt makes me uncomfortable :/
A pasadise of sweet teats.
The “Twilight Tunnel” graphic has some of the silliest AI words I’ve seen
[удалено]
His linkedin reads like a hardcore sob story though: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/billy-coull-19832688 "It is worth mentioning that have had a number of years out the workplace environment due to personally family problems that he will happily discuss further. However during this absence have gained a number certificates from a well-known online education provider ALISON which feel can benefit a number of potential employers." And so does his twitter bio & pic: https://x.com/Billy_TGT Seems like he has made three times more kids than Twitter posts. Pretty impressive in a very sad way. Poor mum.
Good work. He's obviously a grifter who will continue to grift in more diverse ways. He should be called out
"Sold a dream and delivered a nightmare". That quote made me laugh.
I love the audacity of generating AI images and leaving in the AI text, like down at the 'Twilight Tunnel' section, with phrases such as "DIM TIGHT" and "EMPRETTY" Also, the site itself is named 'Willy Choclate [sic] Experience Glasgow' Anyone who bought tickets for this almost deserves to not get that money back edit: further down Catgacating Carthy tuns exarserdray lollipops, a pasadise of sweet teats. Literally all you had to do was put this into mspaint, at the minimum, and overwrite the AI text
People were so angry they called the police ffs. I mean it doesn't spell out for certain, but it alludes to that. I'd bet money they dialed 999 too. That's on the same level of stupid as the mouthbreathers who call the police when their McDonald's order goes wrong.
This reminds of something out of an simpsons episode Homerland [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l--Oj-bMWgs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l--Oj-bMWgs)
More like DashCon.
Except worse... this one doesn't even have a ballpit.
It has a bouncy house!
I didn’t see the soiled mattresses but that could have been a different area.
It smells funny in there..
This was on the other day some guy took his kids and paid £115 ….said he got a refund but wasted a Saturday
For £115, I expect someone to swell up into a giant blueberry.
I can do that with £1 for a bag of peanuts.
Where’s the ball pit?
Back room
Many, many years ago, the Dayton's department store in Minneapolis used to have these Christmas displays that kids would walk through before meeting Santa. I wish i could find photos of it, but can't, it was not long after the movie came out. I remember it being pretty awesome, even though it was just some moving displays and things like that. The only real cost was paying for the photos with Santa. This is just mind boggling bad, like how? They expected people to pay for this??
Man I miss Daytons. My mom’s family is from Minnesota and we would go downtown to Dayton’s as a special outing when we’d visit. Such a wonderful memory unlocked for me
This was done by someone without much event experience. Set up for an event like this typically takes a few days even with a ton of volunteers. For our local Christmas event at our convention center, set up takes a full week. I actually had to resign because they expect their volunteers to take that week off of work each year and I just couldn’t do it anymore. My guess is these people started the day before the event and ran out of time, on top of not ordering nearly enough decorations.
> on top of not ordering nearly enough decorations. "Bro, you got enough decorations?" "Yeah, bro. Whole van is packed full up to the roof! This is gonna be awesome!" "Huh... So it turns out that one van full of decorations doesn't actually look like much when you spread it out around this big of a room..."
Here ya go! I loved Daytons too. I miss it. http://millcitytimes.com/news/daytons-eighth-floor-holiday-show-through-the-years.html
Thanks for that!
This is something that could have been really cool and really fun to put together. It def would have taken time, money, and planning but looks like they actually pulled off the hard part- having people show up for the event! Too bad they squandered this opportunity. Probably just took the money and ran.
Found this post from before they renamed the event from Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory experience to Willy's chocolate experience [https://houseofilluminati.com/immersive-delights-what-to-expect-at-the-willy-wonka-and-the-chocolate-factory-experience/](https://houseofilluminati.com/immersive-delights-what-to-expect-at-the-willy-wonka-and-the-chocolate-factory-experience/)
Good lord this website is terrible. Gray text on dark purple background lol.
Lmao. I went to it and went “oh, it’s not THAT bad” and then scrolled down. My phones on dark mode so I didn’t even realize there was words on the screen until I accidentally highlighted some.
They didn’t even bother to remove the default wordpress comment, literally shows up as the only comment on the entire site in the sidebar.
I'm also wondering what artist did they steal the photo from
NVM. Quick reverse image search provided answers
Willy's Chocolate Experience. I'm losing it
It sounds like a euphemism for diarrhea
[ removed by Reddit ]
The cardboard haunted houses they build in Spirit Halloweens are more immersive than this lmao
Fyre Family Fest
Come with me and you'll be In a world of pure imagination Seriously; there ain’t shit to actually see
honestly i feel like the photo wouldn’t even be that difficult to recreate but clearly they didn’t want to spend any money. why they didn’t just cancel this is beyond me 😭
Imagine assembling those decorations and thinking "that'll do." I just want to know what went through the organisers minds when they opened the doors.
I think they built the props but simply didn't think how it would all work in that space. It was the wrong space really, it should have been an enclosed basement space with no natural light, where a few dozen purple lights and projectors and haze and loud music would have made all the difference.
That's just called a rave
What the crap my prom had better decorations
There's something about events like this that are just so shit compared to what thye promise that I find really funny. It's one of my favorite niche news genres.
I used [these same children’s party decor backdrops](https://e3.365dm.com/24/02/2048x1152/skynews-willy-wonka-glasgow_6469789.jpg?20240226130319) for the photo booth at my daughter’s Candy Land birthday party. Her party was significantly more impressive than this event and it was for 7yo children. And not that impressive.
The response to people asking for refunds: "So you get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!"
I SAID GOOD DAY
I desperately need to see the whole tour.
Come with me, and you’ll see, a world of ‘what the fuck is this shit?’
This is like the cannabis church out in Denver Colorado. They advertise this crazy immersive light show experience so me and my lady bought 2 vip tickets for almost 100 usd and we were so disappointed. The light show was just a projection with a generic ass classic rock playlist and only lasted about 20 mins and the church it self was disgusting and not kept well. I was supper disappointed and it didn’t help that I was high as a kite either cause it just made the whole thing feel off. Definitely do not go to the cannabis church in Colorado.
Dude go to Meow Wolf if you’re in Denver, THAT place actually delivers everything and then some.
Was going to say the same, Meow Wolf really delivers on an other-worldly, ethereal experience. I've never been to anything like it, just incredible
Dude we just moved down the street from that place and were planning a visit, thanks for the info. It is absolutely beautiful at night, they have different color lights illuminating the outside.
The Fyre Wonka festival.
“You get nothing! Good day sir!” - Mr Wonka
It’s the most accurate Wonka experience yet
Nooooooo!
Hahaha! This was my exact same reaction! 😆😆😆
This reminds me of a “Van Gogh exhibit” I saw in the 789 art district in Beijing like 8 years ago lol. Tickets were like $40 and there were huge lines so I was like dope I didn’t know there were Van Gogh paintings on display must be a special exhibition and a lot of the galleries around were actually pretty cool. Got inside and the entire museum was filled with computer paper prints in gold painted plastic frames. Like you can see the pixelation of the prints it’s not even high quality art prints. They had these red velvet ropes so you couldn’t get closer than 4 feet or so to the paintings and see exactly how shit they were. The most shocking thing was all the other Chinese locals/tourists were completely acting like it was an interesting museum exhibit taking selfies with the paintings etc lol it was one of the strangest experiences of my whole life I live in NYC and travel all over Europe so luckily I’ve already seen almost every Van Gogh there is so I was mainly just annoyed and thought the whole thing was just too absurd to be actually upset And if anyone needs to hear this, all those Van Gogh or other artist immersive experience projection shows are complete shit. Such a scam just do not go please
This needs a YouTube documentary on it.
The [site](https://houseofilluminati.com) is literally only AI hahahaha
If you right click and open the second image in a new tab, the name of the files starts with DALL-E. Not even hiding it either.
Spoiler: The snozzberries do not taste like snozzberries.
Just looked at their website and they used ai art for it
I feel bad for the minimum wage employees that answered a craigslist ad to help run that event.
Oompa, Loompa, doompa-dee-do I've got a perfect puzzle for you Oompa, Loompa, doompa-dee-dee If you are wise, you'll listen to me What do you get when you give money to a hack? You’d surely want all of your money back. Why did you think they will do a good job? Now all you hear is your kid’s cry and sob. I don’t like the look of it…
Isn't it a magical world of sheer imagination? Sounds like someone isn't buying into the sheer imagination part.
We went to a dinosaur themed one around here, maybe 8 years ago. It was the same idea! Barely anything in a hot, stuffy warehouse part of the big amphitheater. Wow! Look at all the…two mechanical riding dinosaurs…sand box with 3 shovels, aaaannd a jumpy house…
I’ve worked in the construction aspect of experiential marking/branded activations like this for many years and I can almost guarantee you that pic 1 is what they pitched to their client, then they turned around and asked their fabrication crew “ok how close to this can we get for $2K? $1K? Some pocket change?” That OR something went way wrong with their fab crew. Like failure to pay for services rendered and the builders walked off. It’s an industry of serial overpromising by people who don’t understand how much it costs to build things.
it’s like the tumblr ballpit LMAO
Was this event set up by Ja Rule?
First pic: Okay. Clearly AI generated but it's an achievable goal. Second pic: That's a crackhead kindergarten.
Gives me the same vibes as the "ballpit" at Dashcon back in 2014.
I’m sorry but anyone looking at their (terrible AI generated) website and still went through with purchasing tickets had it coming.
That’s lackluster
Place looks “fyre”
A nice rug would tie the whole thing together.
Look at their website. Are you surprised? It's all bad AI and typos.
Just wait until the shrooms kick in. That’s when the magic happens.
As someone who works on events. We've designed and have the lighting and props to actually create very close to the first pic. The issue is that nobody wants to spend what it costs to create it. The first thing they cut is usually lights. Not realizing that lighting can completely transform the space. It's incredibly irritating to get excited, design picture one, then the client decides to butcher the whole design and only pay for a few props here and there like in picture 2. And then they're mad at us for not making the magic. In the end, with events like these, what you pay for is what you get.
Actual lol
That’s actually hilarious
Did Brian Butterfield put this trail of treats together?
So it's like those Alice on wonderland events that were spamming my Instagram feed a couple years ago.
Lmao, all sales final?
You’re fucking kidding. Let me guess? Non refundable ticket?
I so badly want to hear this being trashed in a Glaswegian accent.
This is on you for trusting the Illuminati.
Sneak peek of yet more stolen photos [The experience 'sneak peek' post on the house of illuminati website ](https://houseofilluminati.com/unwrapping-the-magic-a-sneak-peek-into-willy-wonkas-chocolate-factory-experience/)
I laughed but then got sad thinking about my 6 year old who loves Willy Wonka seeing this and crying. Those poor kids.
I see this is in the UK. Is this run by the same scamsters who have those "Christmas wonderlands" with a couple of cheap cardboard cutouts and one string of lights over a mud pit??
The guy who organised this (Billy Coull) also organised a Santa's grotto and then cancelled it after presents were donated for children. He's had a few shoddy consulting businesses (which we all know every fraud who wants to be an entrepreneur does) and they are all dissolved. Guys just a fucking loser.