A few Jelly Beans and a world of disappointment at the Willy Wonka event

Families in Scotland expected to sample chocolate treats and observe “optical wonders” at a Willy Wonka-themed event in Glasgow last weekend. Instead, they got some jelly beans, a quick walk through a nearly empty warehouse, and a visit from police officers.

The promised event, Willy’s Chocolate Experience, scheduled for February 24 and 25 on event listing websites featuring chocolate fountains, performances by Oompa Loompas and interactive experiences inspired by scenes from Roald Dahl’s book ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’.

One father, Stuart Sinclair, drove two hours from Dundee to take his three children to the event. “There were maybe 20 chairs, a few tables and a half-inflated bouncy castle,” he said.

Mr. Sinclair said he paid 35 pounds, or about $44, per ticket for his two sons, ages 10 and 11, and his daughter, 4, who was dressed in a Willy Wonka costume and told her kindergarten teachers how excited she was to go to the event.

“The children each received two jelly beans,” Mr Sinclair said. “And then they got half a cup of lemonade.”

Families had reserved a time slot to enter the venue every 15 minutes and were greeted by rows of unadorned tables and walls of black fabric dividing one sparsely furnished space from another.

“As soon as they walked in they said ‘wow’, they just shook their heads and were in complete disbelief at how bad it was,” Mr Sinclair said.

Alana Lockens of Hamilton said after she bought tickets she noticed the event website had been updated with a legal warning to say it was not related to the Wonka franchise, which is owned by Warner Bros. a scam and was initially relieved when he arrived and saw an actual event taking place.

“I can laugh about it now, but at first I just thought it was ridiculous,” said Ms. Lockens, who went with her ex-husband, a friend and her two children. “It was so poorly done considering how much the tickets cost us.”

Faced with the crowd of disappointed families, event organizers abruptly canceled the event Saturday afternoon.

Police Scotland said officers were called after the event was canceled but police decided they were not needed. It was not clear who called the police.

The event’s organizer, the House of Illuminati, addressed the complaints on Saturday, saying in a statement that it acknowledged the event was a disappointment and should have been canceled sooner. “We fully apologize for what happened and will provide a full refund to anyone who purchased tickets,” the company said in a statement on its Facebook page, which has since been deleted.

The House of Illuminati did not respond to requests for comment.

The event took place at Box Hub, an event space in Glasgow.

Matt Waterfield, Box Hub’s operations manager, said in an email that the House of Illuminati approached him in early January and that the company was fully responsible for the marketing, promotion and operation of the event. “They decorated the room on Friday,” he said. “The result was incredibly disappointing.”

“We fully stand with the many outraged customers and truly hope that House of Illuminati reimburses these families as promised,” he said.

Families who attended the experience and people hired to work on it gathered in a Facebook group to complain about what happened and discuss how it would be rectified.

Jenny Fogarty, who was hired to play an Oompa Loompa, told The Scotsman that she was given a fifteen-page script to read the night before the event started, and that she received her costume an hour before the families arrived.

“The wigs were very cheap,” Ms Fogarty said. “We were just handed an Amazon box that probably arrived that morning.”

Ms Fogarty said she had been told she would be paid £16.66 an hour but had not yet been paid.

The event was marketed as immersive experiences that have appeared in cities around the world over the past two decades, such as the Museum of Ice Cream in New York and “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience.”

The event website built on that suggestion, but also hinted that the experience might be of questionable quality.

It promised “a journey full of delicious treats, enchanting adventures and moments worth capturing,” and featured elaborate, candy-colored illustrations. Those illustrations were marred by unusual spelling errors and phrases, including: “a pasadise of sweet treats” and “exarserdray lollipops.”

Mr Sinclair said that although his family were disappointed by Willy’s Chocolate Experience, he and his children still made the most of their day in Glasgow and took his daughter to make her first teddy bear at a Build-a-Bear workshop.

“Worst of all, Mr. Sinclair said, was that there was no chocolate.