What Was The Sad Glasgow 'Willy Wonka Experience' And Who's 'Billy Coull'? The Disastrous Event Explained

In the great pantheon of "event failures," perhaps nothing compares to the ill-fated Tumblr-palooza Dashcon (not even Fyre Fest could compete with the iconography of Dashcon's sad ball pit), but it seems an event organizer in Scotland has had a go at it with what is quickly becoming an infamous "Willy Wonka Experience." The doozy of a controversy dropped earlier this week and features AI art fails, crying children and the police.

What Was The Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience?

Earlier this month, an event-organizing group called "House of Illuminati" began advertising a great "Willy Wonka" themed experience to take place in Glasgow on February 24th and 25th. They promised a "paradise of sweet treats" and attractions such as giant lollipops, a chocolate fountain, and other Wonka-themed delights in a tour that should have lasted roughly an hour. However, those with a keen eye may have noticed that the advertisements for the event were clearly AI-generated, and the AI had quite a bit of trouble writing English words such as "Enriching," "Captivating" and "Catchy."

The colorful, barely-literate website was an ill omen of what was to come, as people who attended the event, which cost £35, were treated not to an imaginarium akin to Wonka's famous lab but to a mostly barren warehouse with sparse, Wonka-esque merchandise. The pictures paint a pretty bleak picture.

What Happened At The Glasgow Wonka Experience?

Those who were first in line to attend the event quickly noticed that it was not what was advertised and got pretty angry pretty quickly. Refunds were demanded and as the ranks of unhappy customers grew, House of Illuminati decided to shut the event down. The BBC reports disappointed children were crying in the streets while the police came to calm the situation. The second day of the event did not go forward as planned.

In the wake of the disastrous event, a Facebook group of angry Glaswegians, currently 1,200 strong, has been discussing ways to retrieve their refunds and sharing horror stories from the day.

All of this was extremely funny to social media users who could not believe how dire and disappointing the event seemed by the pictures. Many on social media were taken with a picture of an actor pretending to be an Oompa Loompa at a candy-making lab. One user said she looked like "she’s running a literal meth lab and is seriously questioning the life choices up until this point," which was almost "too on-the-nose" a metaphor for the event.

Who Is Billy Coull?

Billy Coull is the head of House of Illuminati, and he was tracked down online by angry social media users. The Daily Mail found that Coull is also a self-published novelist whose novels are written by AI. He also guaranteed refunds for the event.

Will The Glasgow Wonka Experience Patrons Get Refunds?

At this moment, it's unclear. The House of Illuminati Facebook page seemed to indicate so, writing:

Today has been a very stressful and frustrating day for many and for that we are truly sorry.
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 havd 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.
We planned a fabulous event and it just did not take shape as planned and for that we are truly sorry we are devastated at how this has turned out and understand people's anger and frustration that everyone has had, refunds have already started being issued and the rest should be over the coming days, again we are truely [sic] sorry to everyone.

However, if posts from the Facebook group are to be believed, House of Illuminati may not be game to give refunds. In a post allegedly written by a House of Illuminati employee in the group named Richard Bone, he seems to staunchly defend the event by noting the advertisements had "fine print" stating the actual event may not live up to the advertisements. He also invited the group to an Easter-themed event put on by House of Illuminati.

It may be the most Wonka-esque thing about the whole event, as the post does seem to echo a certain famous monologue that goes, "It's all there, black and white! You lose! Good day, sir!"

---

For the full history of the Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.