The long and short of it was that the event, not officially licensed by WB (quelle fucking suprise) hosted in a dirty warehouse with little more than cheap props, tacky holiday ornaments and shower curtains, ended up being a complete shitshow. They gave each child, I shit you not, a couple (literally 0-3, dependent on how early your time slot was) jellybeans and half a cup of Tesco lemonade. No actual chocolate to be found in the entire chocolate-factory-themed event. The actors, including this poor woman, were hired and briefed literally the day before the event, handed 15 page AI-generated scripts that, predictably, made no fucking sense, including original characters like “the unknown,” and basically had to just wing it in poundland costumes. And like, in spite of it all, they really did give it their best effort, and from what I understand still haven’t been paid for their work.
Predictably, the event organizers ended up having to refund people for this sham of an event that they claim “failed to materialize.” Well of course it did, the people who were responsible for putting it together cooked up a dozen AI images and shat out a “legally distinct” script and thought it would all come together. Much like Fyre Festival, it’s another failure on the part of hucksters who do not understand that events require planning and don’t care to understand because they’re just trying to make a buck.
Oh man, where to begin? So there was an event advertised as an ‘immersive Willy Wonka’s Wonderland experience’ with all sorts of AI art and marketing:
https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/27/glasgow-willy-wonka-experience-slammed-as-farce-as-tickets-refunded
The long and short of it was that the event, not officially licensed by WB (quelle fucking suprise) hosted in a dirty warehouse with little more than cheap props, tacky holiday ornaments and shower curtains, ended up being a complete shitshow. They gave each child, I shit you not, a couple (literally 0-3, dependent on how early your time slot was) jellybeans and half a cup of Tesco lemonade. No actual chocolate to be found in the entire chocolate-factory-themed event. The actors, including this poor woman, were hired and briefed literally the day before the event, handed 15 page AI-generated scripts that, predictably, made no fucking sense, including original characters like “the unknown,” and basically had to just wing it in poundland costumes. And like, in spite of it all, they really did give it their best effort, and from what I understand still haven’t been paid for their work.
Predictably, the event organizers ended up having to refund people for this sham of an event that they claim “failed to materialize.” Well of course it did, the people who were responsible for putting it together cooked up a dozen AI images and shat out a “legally distinct” script and thought it would all come together. Much like Fyre Festival, it’s another failure on the part of hucksters who do not understand that events require planning and don’t care to understand because they’re just trying to make a buck.