Police called to Willy Wonka experience as refunds demanded

A Willy Wonka-inspired experience was brought to a premature end by organiser House of Illuminati after police were called and guests complained of “an absolute shambles of an event” in Glasgow.

Tickets were priced at £35 ($44/€40) at Box Hub in the Scottish city where promises were made of a place where “dreams become reality”.

However, the organisers were forced to cancel the weekend event midway through its first day on Saturday and have promised full refunds.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said officers were called to the cancelled event and “advice was given”.

“Today has been a very stressful and frustrating day for many and for that we are truly sorry,” read a Facebook post from House of Illuminati.

“Unfortunately 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.”

In a separate post, the company also stated that it “will not be holding any other event in the foreseeable future” while refunds are expected to take up to 10 working days.

One visitor told the BBC of how the event was advertised as a spectacular affair but “when we got there, it was practically an abandoned, empty warehouse with hardly anything in it”.

While many customers saw the funny side of the catastrophic event, some are wary of the impact it could play on similar shows.

“The disaster of this particular Willy Wonker [sic] Experience will have a far-reaching impact to anyone in the business of generating ticket sales for immersive experiences,” said marketing and commercial strategy expert Dawn Farrow.

“When a story like this happens, it makes audiences question the value of what they are buying and to worry about whether their money is really being well spent.”

When looking at the event’s website, customers may have been sceptical as it is populated with AI-generated images that are littered with spelling mistakes. One even advertised “cartchy tuns, exarserdray lollipops, [and] a pasadise of sweet teats”.