Willy Wonka attraction in Scotland turns out to be a total flop: “Worst: there was no chocolate” | News

It had to be an ‘experience’ that every child dreams of. Parents paid more than 40 euros per ticket, but in return you would receive an ‘interactive spectacle’ of 45 to 60 minutes with chocolate fountains and ‘surprises at every step’. The so-called Willy’s Chocolate Experience was promoted online with heavenly artificial intelligence photos, which you could almost taste thanks to the colors.

In reality, parents found an almost empty warehouse, where their children were each given two jellybean candies and half a cup of lemonade. The colorless dejection was interrupted here and there by a stray candy-shaped set piece, photos from the advertisements hung like posters on otherwise empty walls. Even the bouncy castle was only half inflated, according to one visitor. Several children cried, he said The Guardian. Within five minutes they had seen everything.

The promised ‘live performances’ didn’t help either. Several actors were hired to play Oompa Loompas, the famous dwarfs from the world of Roald Dahls Charlie and the Chocolate Factory what the event was about. 25-year-old Jenny Fogarty said she received a ‘cheap’ wig and an Oompa Loompa suit an hour before opening, to her horror a ‘sexy version’ for adults, according to the Scottish newspaper The Scotsman. The actors were given a script the night before the event, but had to improvise because the promised set pieces were missing. According to Fogarty, they would receive 19.50 euros per hour, but so far she has not received any wages.

Parents were so angry that they demanded their money back on the spot and called the police. Ultimately, they did not intervene, but the organization did close the doors of the experience a few hours after it started. However, later visitors to the two-day event were not told this, so they traveled accordingly The Guardian in some cases great distances for nothing. Photos of the contrast between the promised candy paradise and the empty warehouse are now circulating on social media.

The organization speaks of a ‘very stressful and frustrating day’. The company apologizes for this. ‘Unfortunately, we encountered all kinds of setbacks surrounding our event at the last minute and did our best to persevere. We now realize that we should have called it off immediately.’ Visitors will get their money back, the company promises. This would involve approximately 800 tickets sold.

There were some small signs that the organization was not too professional, because the website contained strikingly large spelling errors. Stuart Sinclair, who drove two hours to take his three children to the experience, is left with a sour taste in the day that should have been so sweet. “Worst of all is…,” he counters The New York Times. “There was no chocolate.”