Auctioned props from viral Willy Wonka experience raise over €2k for Palestinian Charity
Glasgow's Willy Wonka experience was meant to be a world of Pure Imagination, but instead it was pure hell.
Hosted in a partially decorated warehouse with actors hired to read from AI-generated scripts, children were offered a singular jelly bean each and a quarter cup of lemonade.
'It was an absolute mess': Actor speaks out about viral Willy
Wonka experience in Glasgow
The bizarre story soon went viral, with images of a dead-eyed Oompa Loompa actress becoming 2024's hottest meme, along with a silver-masked creep called 'The Unknown' that inexplicably popped out from behind a mirror to terrify confused kids.
Thankfully, a positive - other than social media-based glee - has now come from the disastrous event.
Monorail, a record store in
Glasgow, auctioned some of the props on eBay after finding them in a bin, raising £2,250 (€2,634) for Medical Aid for Palestinians, a charity that helps provide shelter, food and urgent medical care in Gaza.
The listing stated: “Don’t miss out on this rare opportunity to own a piece of history.”
Monorail's manager, Michael Kasparis said: “We are all watching [the auction] like you’d watch the end of a football game."
“We’d thought if it goes into four figures we’d be very happy, so it was a pretty amazing result.”
Following a furious reception, the Willy Wonka experience was closed on 24 February, with its organiser, Billy Coull, apologising and offering to refund the 850 attendees.
Despite the event's notoriety dying down in recent weeks, the success of Monorail's auction proves that people still have a sweet-tooth for its candied chaos.
“I was slightly worried that the joke had gone, but it doesn’t look like it’s going away any time soon,” Kasparis said.